THE former manager of a Bolton shisha cafe has been fined £1,000 for failing to prevent smoking inside the building.

Imran Saleem and his company — Arabian Lounge Trading Ltd — were taken to court after Bolton Council investigators found two groups of customers smoking two hookah pipes inside the Arabian Lounge cafe in Derby Street, Daubhill, in November 2012.

The cafe has since changed ownership and is now being adapted to make the design legal for shisha smoking, Bolton Magistrates Court was told.

Andrew Morrison, prosecuting for Bolton Council, said: “The law says that premises which are open to the public must be smoke-free with a few limited exceptions where buildings or structures are substantially open, such as smoking shelters.

“The Arabian Lounge hires out water pipes that are used in the Middle East and people can buy shisha, which is smoked. However, this case took place when the building was substantially enclosed. There was an electronic door with CCTV monitoring at the entrance.”

The authorities had been involved in the case since 2011.

Letters were sent to the cafe requesting that smoking ceased unless the premises were adapted.

During the November, 2012 inspection, council inspectors found customers inside with two pipes in two groups.

Mr Saleem and his company were both charged with failing to stop people smoking in a smoke-free premises.

Bolton Magistrates Court dealt with the case yesterday, in the absence of Mr Saleem, aged 33, and any other representative of the company.

Both are based in Springbank Lane, Rochdale.

Mr Morrison said the cafe came under new ownership in March, 2013 and is now being adapted to make the design legal for shisha smoking.

Magistrates found the cases proven against Mr Saleem and the company.

Mr Saleem had two convictions for the same offences in May, 2012 and April of this year.

He and Arabian Lounge Trading Ltd each had five identical previous convictions from Kirklees Magistrates’ Court in Huddersfield.

Bolton magistrates fined Mr Saleem £1,000 and imposed a £125 surcharge and £1,138 costs on him. Arabian Lounge Trading Ltd was handed the same fine, surcharge and costs.