DANGEROUS levels of carbon monoxide were found at a Bolton shisha cafe where a garden chiminea was burning indoors.

Bolton Crown Court heard how Bolton Council officials visited the Blue Lounge on Derby Street and found 10 people inside using the chiminea to heat coal for shisha pipes.

Robin Kitching, prosecuting, said the officials ordered it to be extinguished and put outside, but when they returned two hours later the chiminea was still burning indoors.

The cafe's owner and sole director Hawzhin Ahmed, had denied two offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act, but changed her plea to guilty on the day of her trial.

She was fined £750 and no order was made for her to pay the council's costs of almost £9,000 as Judge Timothy Stead was told the single mum's only income is universal credit.

The court heard how council officials had visited the the Blue Lounge on February 28, 2018 and found 10 people inside smoking.

The chiminea was being used to heat charcoal which was then used in the shisha pipes and there was inadequate ventilation.

"The air was thick with smoke from the shisha pipes," said Mr Kitching.

When the officials asked who owned the premises they were shown business and council tax bills in Ahmed's name.

The staff agreed to extinguish the chiminea and put it outside.

"But when the officers returned two hours later to check, again there were people inside smoking shisha pipes, the chiminea was still inside and was still burning charcoal," said Mr Kitching.

"A portable carbon monoxide alarm showed dangerous levels of the gas had accumulated inside the building."

Judge Stead commented: "Anyone who knows anything about carbon monoxide and its dangers could find it hard to think of anything more dangerous to use inside."

Ahmed, who was not present at the time, was accused of failing to protect staff and others from risk associated with carbon monoxide build-up.

Fortunately no one was harmed.

She claimed that the people present were not customers as the premises, which she took over earlier that year, was still being refurbished.

"The council case was this was open and running as a business," said Mr Kitching.

She told investigators that she usually worked at the premises six days a week and Wshyar Rashid was her manager.

In a hearing before magistrates in January last year Rashid, aged 44, of Derby Street, admitted smoking and failing to stop others smoking at the premises and was fined £120 plus £500 costs.

At Ahmed's sentence hearing Judge Stead was told how she came to the UK from Iraq in 2013, does not speak good English and had never run a business before but had been encouraged to run the shisha bar by members of the Kurdish community.

"That raises the suspicion that this was a front for someone else. I may well hold that suspicion but I have no evidence of it," said Judge Stead.

Harriet Tighe, defending said 34-year-old Ahmed, of Henley Grove, Bolton, "accepts that she was naive and inexperienced in embarking on the business" and is still paying off £4,500 tax debts to Bolton Council relating to the cafe bar.

Fining Ahmed £750 Judge Stead commented that it is "distasteful" that she had only pleaded guilty at the last moment, putting Bolton Council to "very considerable cost" which she cannot afford to pay.

"The cost to Bolton Council means other services are inevitably harmed by that," he said.

Speaking after the sentencing Cllr Hilary Fairclough, executive cabinet member for environment regulatory services, said: “This business acted incredibly recklessly and was putting people’s lives in danger with the chiminea.

“Not only was it a fire risk, there were also dangerous levels of carbon monoxide present that could have caused serious harm.

“The owners of this shisha café may have been excused by the court from paying costs, which is very frustrating, even a contribution to costs would have sent the right message. But rest assured we will be keeping an eye on them.

“Other shisha bars in the borough should be warned - operate within the law, and if you do not comply then we will prosecute you.”