The owner of Penzance Grill has been banned indefinitely from ever running a food business again after letting hygiene "slip quite dramatically" - and trying to open even when his water was cut off.

This was just one of the incidents that ended up leading to Ramazan Kaya being called before a court.

It was in February this year that Cornwall Council's Public Protection Service was warned by South West Water that they had disconnected the supply to Penzance Grill in Market Jew Street.

An investigation by environmental health officers from the food and safety team found that Mr Kaya was preparing to open the business for the weekend armed with buckets of water.

While there officers also noted that the premises were in a poor state of cleanliness and that important food safety records had not been kept for "a significant period." The business was voluntarily closed and officers instructed Mr Kaya to reinstate the water and deep clean the premises.

Truro Magistrates' Court heard that although the water was reinstated the next day, Mr Kaya failed to ensure that the business was returned to a satisfactory state of cleanliness, leaving officers no choice but to bring the matter before the court.

Magistrates were told that Mr Kaya had been given "extensive" support by food safety officers in previous years, and despite making improvements he had "let the standards slip quite dramatically over time."

Mr Kaya also failed to renew his Premises Licence around this time, and despite warnings from Devon and Cornwall Police continued to trade after 11pm over the weekend of April 1 to April 3, without a late night refreshment licence.

Such were the number and seriousness of the failings, that the Public Protection service progressed the matter to court.

A Cornwall spokesperson said: "Regrettably the week that summons were served on Mr Kaya to attend court he cleared his shop of equipment and went to Bath, where he was soon traced. Summons were again served on Mr Kaya at his new address and he then later failed to attend court resulting in the magistrates issuing a warrant for his arrest."

After being tracked down by Avon and Somerset Police, he appeared at Truro Magistrates' Court yesterday where he pleaded guilty to food hygiene and licensing charges.

He was fined £2,750 with a £120 victim surcharge and full prosecuting costs of £1,969.22 awarded to Cornwall Council.

Due to the serious nature of the offences, the court also made an order banning Mr Kaya from taking part in the management of any food business.

After the hearing Tim Bage, senior environmental health officer, said: "I am grateful to Devon and Cornwall, and Avon and Somerset Police for executing the warrant with such haste to bring Mr Kaya before the court to answer these charges.

“The court commented on the serious of the offences, concluding that a significant fine and full costs were justified, including a prohibition upon Mr Kaya from running a food business again in the future.”

Geoff Brown, Cornwall Council cabinet member for communities, said: “The vast majority of Cornwall’s food businesses operators are hard working, honest and compliant people who take pride in maintaining high standards; unfortunately Mr Kaya was not one of these operators.”