A LAW graduate who took up the running of his family’s food businesses has been ordered to pay more than £2,000 in fines and costs for breaching food hygiene rules.

Muhammad Farooq, 28, who graduated with first class honours from University College London (UCL), got involved in the family firms in the summer of 2011 when he returned from his studies.

Yesterday at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates Court, Farooq pleaded guilty to 22 food hygiene offences, which related to three businesses.

The three firms under his name were Chicken Cottage, of Cavendish Street, Keighley; Jay’s Homemade Cakes, of Thorncliffe Road in Bradford, and Raja’s Chicken Bar in Whetley Lane, Bradford.

The charges against Farooq, said prosecutor Harjit Ryatt, included storing food at the wrong temperature, failing to implement a food management system, staff not wearing clean clothing, dirty equipment, cross-contamination of food, no soap on sinks, and a failure to train staff.

In mitigation, Wajid Khalil said Farooq had been aiming to become a solicitor, but had taken on responsibility in the family businesses as he was the eldest son and eldest brother in his family.

Magistrates told Farooq, of Redcliffe Street, Keighley: “You were trying to help out your family in an area that you had no expertise or qualifications, and that has resulted in where we are at.”

He was fined £750 and ordered to pay £1,250 costs and a £75 surcharge. He was banned from running a food business for three years.