Pasha took over what used to be The Mill

The owners of a Preston shisha cafe have been ordered to pay nearly £3,000 in fines for breaking smoking laws.

Pasha Shisha Cafe, in what was once The Mill on Aqueduct Street, were prosecuted by Preston City Council for offences related to using shisha pipes indoors at the venue in August last year.

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The cafe is fully enclosed and officers from the council’s environmental health department prosecuted for two offences:

– failing to prevent smoking and failing to display a no smoking sign
– providing facilities for smoking in a smoke-free place

Preston magistrates court handed out a fine of £2,880, £400 costs and a £120 victim support charge to parent company Preston Cafe Limited.

Craig Sharp, Chief Environmental Health Officer at Preston City Council, said: “The law on smoking in workplaces and enclosed public places applies as much to the use of shisha as it does to cigarettes. Even though it has passed through water, the level of toxins in shisha smoke can be much higher than in cigarette smoke and therefore second-hand smoke from shisha is also extremely harmful.

“The Council is always happy to advise local businesses that want to comply with public protection laws, but for those that do not, we will use legal sanctions to try and ensure a safer environment for the people of Preston. In this case the court has found that not only had this company again broken the law, but that it had also encouraged individuals to break the law by providing them with the facilities to smoke shisha in an enclosed workplace.”

It is the second time the cafe has been prosecuted, following another verdict in July 2013 when the company was fined.