ABU DHABI // A restaurant owner endangered people’s lives by letting cleaners prepare the food, the Cassation Court has ruled.
The Syrian restaurant owner made three cleaners — one from Bangladesh and two from Sri lanka — take the jobs of cooks without being authorised to do so.
He was also charged with recruiting the three cleaners but not sponsoring them.
The Syrian owner was also found to be residing in the country illegally after his residency visa expired and did not renew it or leave the country — he also refused to pay the fine issued against him.
The Al Ain First Instance Court sentenced him to pay a Dh100,000 fine for recruiting the first three defendants, and a Dh1,000 for overstaying his residency visa and Dh5,000 for endangering customers’ lives.
Two of the cleaners were sentenced to pay Dh2,000 each for endangering people’s lives and the one of them was acquitted.
The Appeals Court reduced the Dh5,000 fine for the restaurant owner to Dh2,000.
He again appealed the verdict at the Cassation Court arguing that there is no punishment for assigning a worker to a job that is not his profession.
He also claimed the verdict contradicted itself when it convicted him, but cleared the workers of working for someone other than their sponsor.
There was no evidence in the case file to shows that he had recruited them as there was another supervisor who was in charge of the paperwork.
The court said the three cleaners were caught while preparing food for customers at the restaurant, to which they confessed to during investigations.
They told prosecutors the Syrian defendant was the one running the restaurant. They said he ordered them to prepare food for customers while they were not on his sponsorship and he made them do a job they were not employed to do.
Therefore the court rejected the Syrian defendant’s argument and upheld the Appeals Court verdict.
hdajani@thenational.ae
