THREE Indian restaurants in York served up beef in spicy sauces telling customers it was lamb, magistrates have heard.

The owners of Lal Quila Indian Restaurant, The Garden of India Tandoori and Eastern Promise landed in the dock after a routine survey by food inspectors.

City of York Council officers made spot checks on ten curry houses and were sold bogus meals in three.

York magistrates ordered Shahin Miah, of the Garden of India Tandoori, and Humayun Kabir, 33, of Lal Quila Indian Restaurant, to pay more than £900 each, including a £500 fine each and court costs. They adjourned the case against Erfan Ali, 40, of Eastern Promise, at his request. All three admitted breaking the Food Safety Act 1990.

Prosecutor Mike Hessey, of York trading standards, said food inspectors posing as customers bought lamb dishes at Lal Quila Indian Restaurant, Bishopthorpe Road, and The Garden of India Tandoori, Fawcett Street, in May 1997. When the meals were analysed, forensic scientists discovered they contained beef and not lamb.

The public had the right to have the meal they chose, he told magistrates. No customers had complained about either restaurant.

Nicola Goodman, for Humayun Kabir, said the second chef of Lal Quila Indian Restaurant, who had just come on shift and was clearly in a hurry when the inspectors called, mistook cubed beef for cubed lamb.

Kabir had now changed the type of meat containers and their labelling and stored them separately to prevent the mistake reoccurring. "Lal Quila has a fine reputation as a hygienic provider of quality meals and he is proud of that reputation," she said.

He bought only expensive top quality meat from a butcher who only used safe sources and gained no financial benefit from selling beef as lamb. If a customer complained about his food he got his money back and a free meal.

Janet Looker, for Shahin Miah, in a letter to the court, said he did not know whether the beef in his restaurant's meal had been included by mistake by the chef or the waitress had misheard the order. It had been an unfortunate error and both members of staff had left the restaurant. Miah had changed the routines to prevent such an error happening again.

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