COCKROACH and mice infestations led environmental health officers to shut an East Oxford butcher’s and convenience store.

Oxford City Council inspected the JM Halal shop, in Cowley Road, last Friday, and secured its closure at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.

Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Orders were served on Javad Malik Iqbal and Sajjad Ghafoor, forcing the closure of the shop until the council is satisfied it no longer poses a risk to public health.

Environmental health officer Richard Kuziara discovered the problems after visiting the premises at noon on September 11 as part of a routine hygiene check.

He said: “The whole shop has been closed. It was pretty bad. I find it unbelievable in this day and age that people think they can run a business with a heavy infestation like that.

“I was in there again on Tuesday and there were still cockroaches crawling all over. They were drunk from the chemicals that had been sprayed, but whenever you pulled bags out they came out. They were in the seals of the fridges, in the equipment – absolutely everywhere.

“Part of the reason we closed the premises was because it wasn’t ‘proofed’, as we call it, to prevent access for pests. There were huge gaps under the front and back doors, and holes all over the place where mice had been getting through.

“It’s a butcher’s shop handling raw meat, but there were no washing facilities with hot water in the whole premises.

“When the owners have rectified all these things, and I am satisfied it is safe, it can reopen.”

Mr Kuziara said new owners had taken over the business in the past three months, but the last pest control visit to the shop, on December 23, had alerted the previous owners to a cockroach and rodent problem.

He added: “Once the owners realised that we meant business and fully grasped the implications, they went into overdrive to do everything I asked for.

“They have had four pest control visits, the whole premises has been fogged, and traps have been laid.

“The first round of traps caught six mice and thousands of cockroaches.”

JM Halal manager Usman Mir said: “We have improved the shop and cleaned it up.

“We have cooperated with Environmental Health and are doing everything we can to repen as soon as possible – hopefully in the next few days.”

tairs@oxfordmail.co.uk