THE owner of a Chinese takeaway with flies in the kitchen has been handed a £3,951.07 court punishment.

Conditions at the Lucky Dragon on Boroughbridge Road,York, were so bad, environmental health officers gave it a rating of one star out of five for four consecutive years from March 2014 to July 2017, said Victoria Waudby, prosecuting.

The takeaway’s boss, Yan Yun Zhou, told City of York Council investigators on August 8, 2017, she had not been to the restaurant for a month.

Lucky Dragon York Ltd, which had run the takeaway since January 2015 and Zhou, 44, the company’s sole director, both admitted three food hygiene charges.

York magistrates fined each £591 and in addition, ordered Zhou to pay the City of York Council’s £2,710.07 prosecution costs and a £59 statutory surcharge.

Altogether on behalf of herself and her company Zhou must pay £3,951.07.

Mrs Waudby gave a list of hygiene faults including flies in the kitchen, the back door wedged open with no precautions against flies entering and missing filters on extraction fans.

She said the same work surfaces were used to prepare raw meat and vegetables, exposing food to the risk of cross contamination and there were cracks in the floor.

Zhou, who represented herself, said through a Mandarin interpreter: “I plead guilty of these offences” and offered no mitigation.

Editor’s note: We have been contacted by WenLin Chen, a director of L&T York Ltd, who has asked us to point out that the Lucky Dragon in Boroughbridge Road, York, changed hands on August 11, 2017 and has been under the ownership of L&T York Ltd since that date. It was inspected in November 2017 and received a three-star food hygiene rating.