Sicilian Pizza: cleaning up their act

Staff at a Leamington takeaway have been sacked and the store has vowed to clean up its act after allegations of fraud and criticism over poor hygiene standards.

Balbir Singh, owner of Sicilian Pizza takeaway on High Street, told the Boar he dismissed all his members of staff on Monday 22 April as a precaution

The manager, Shaz Makhmoor, was dismissed later on Thursday 25 April. The dismissals were the result of complaints from customers having money erroneously taken from their bank accounts after paying for food on their debit cards.

Two Warwick students reported losing money in March after purchasing food there, and a further three students have come forward since the initial Boar investigation.

Mr Makhmoor had previously suggested the problem was due to a faulty card machine or human error, but Balbir Singh said he cannot be sure what happened.

He said he could not discount the possibility of fraud and the sackings were a precaution to ensure something like this does not happen again.

“Maybe it was a mistake or maybe intentionally something happened,” he said, “We are willing to refund the full amount. I believe that it’s probably a mistake more than anything else.”

Mr Balbir Singh has hired a fresh team of staff since the dismissals, and is having CCTV cameras installed to monitor them. The new team is headed up by manager Raj Singh, assistant manager Gary Singh and supervisor Stevan Singh. Mr R Singh and Mr S Singh have over ten years experience in the food and beverage industry.

“It’s going to be different now,” said Mr Gary Singh, who has experience in IT and will be working on a new website for the takeaway. “We’ve got experienced guys.”

He said the store will undergo a complete revamp and is aiming to gain a ‘five star’ hygiene rating from the Food Standards Agency (FSA). The FSA currently gives Sicilian Pizza a ‘zero star’ rating, meaning that ‘urgent improvement [is] necessary’.

The store will also launch a new website and change its name, though the management has yet to decide on a suitable one. The complete revamp will be completed by the start of Term 1 of the 2013/2014 academic year.

He added that he would be getting a new card machine to replace the one supposedly responsible for the allegedly fraudulent transactions.

Mr Raj Singh said he was considering introducing student discount, hinting that they may offer up to 30 to 50 percent discount.

Sicilian Pizza insist they are cleaning up their act photo: Michael Allen

Sicilian Pizza insist they are cleaning up their act photo: Michael Allen

Mr Balbir Singh wished to assure students he was doing his best to prevent the incident occurring again.

“We have a good relationship with the University,” he said. “We get a lot of students.”

However, a poll conducted by the Boar showed at the time of publication that more than half of students surveyed would no longer purchase food from Sicilian Pizza as result of the allegations.

Jennifer bought food worth £6.80 on March 10, but consequently had £9.99 taken out on March 11 and £17.99 on the March 20. On the latter date she said she was out of the country. Her bank consequently refunded her both amounts.

Charlie Johnson, a second-year Politics student, bought a £6 pizza on March 14, but was charged £25.99. Mr Johnson’s bank also refunded his money.

Third-year student Roisin O’Brien bought two portions of chips with a friend for £2.80 but was charged an extra £5.50 the same night.

“There seemed to be some difficulty with the payment as the man processing the transaction asked the other employee to help,” she said.

Previously, second-year Politics student George Ryan reported losing £15.50 after making a card transaction at the takeaway. Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, lost £85.

Barclays bank, which told one of the affected students it was investigating her claim, said it could not comment about on-going investigations, nor could it reveal how many complaints it had received about Sicilian Pizza.

However, the student said the bank told her “many of their customers” had experienced problems.

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