A MAN banned from running restaurants after breaching food hygiene regulations is still serving customers.

Vincenzo Fuccio was banned from running any food business after York Magistrate’s Court found he had ignored safety warnings for years.

Council officials spent years trying to encourage Fuccio to improve conditions at La Vecchia Scuola in York after he was first warned in 2008.

York Magistrates heard the conditions in his restaurant “could have had a very serious impact on public health”. He pleaded guilty to 13 counts of breaching food hygiene regulations and asked for another 16 to be taken into consideration and was given an indefinite ban from running any food premises.

But he has since been spotted serving food to unsuspecting customers at the Como restaurant in Ship Street, Brighton. The ban prevents him managing a food outlet, but not otherwise working for one.

Brighton and Hove City Council’s environmental health department is now making its own inquiries.

An investigation by The Argus in Brighton, a sister newspaper of The Press, visited the restaurant this week and found Fuccio serving customers and going in and out of the kitchen.

When a reporter asked to speak to the manager, Fuccio was sent over. When confronted, Fuccio, 43, of Gardener Road, Portslade, denied acting as a manager, saying he was simply a waiter.

He said: “I’m allowed to work and that’s it. I’m not serving food.”

When told he had been seen serving food he changed his mind and said: “I’m serving food, but I’m not in charge. Brighton and Hove City Council know I’m working here. If you put my name in the paper something bad will happen to you.”

A woman called Cesarina D’Alessio contacted The Argus afterwards claiming to be a manager at the restaurant and said they had taken it over on January 21, but denied Fuccio was a manager.

She said: “We know about Vincenzo’s past, but he is not the person in charge.”

The Argus passed its findings to the city council where a spokeswoman said they were investigating.

Fuccio is listed on Companies House as the former director of six dissolved restaurant and takeaway businesses in Brighton.

He was a former director of a company called Virgin Restaurants Ltd. Ms D’Alessio is also listed as a previous director.