Restaurant licensee given suspended jail sentence for extending business area illegally

     A restaurant licensee was sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment suspended for 18 months by the Kowloon City Magistrates' Courts yesterday (October 19) for extending the business area illegally.
      
     A spokesman for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said that the department earlier detected an illegal extension of the business area by a restaurant at Tsz Wah Lane in Tsz Wan Shan, Wong Tai Sin. Operations were mounted on April 21 and June 18 respectively, and prosecutions were instituted against the licensee of the restaurant.
      
     Under the Food Business Regulation (Cap. 132X), save with the written permission of the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene, no licensee shall carry on any food business at or from any place beyond the confines of the food premises as delineated on the plan approved in respect of his or her licence. Anyone extending the business area illegally commits an offence and is liable to a maximum fine of $10,000 and imprisonment for three months upon conviction.