Owner of shisha bar to pay £5,000+ after 'humidor' defence fails

The owner of a shisha bar has been ordered to pay more than £5,000 in fines and costs following a prosecution by Westminster Council.

The local authority took action after Gurjot Patwalia, owner of the Boudoir in Maida Vale, persistently allowed customers to use shisha pipes indoors.

Patwalia, from Wembley, told Westminster Magistrates’ Court that customers had been “sampling products” and suggested that the premises should be treated in the same [exempt] way as a humidor room run by a specialist tobacconist.

The claims were rejected by the magistrate, who fined the defendant a total of £1,200 – or £300 for each of four counts of not preventing smoking in a smoke free place between April and June 2012.

The council was awarded its costs of £3,919. Patwalia was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £15.

Cllr Audrey Lewis, Westminster’s licensing chairman, said: “This was a surprising move which, if it had been allowed to succeed, could have paved the way for an end to the current smoking ban.

“We are relieved that the magistrate saw this for what it was and dismissed the defence’s argument.”