Two brothers who have ran a restaurant for 25 years have had their passports confiscated and ordered to pay the council £2.5 million after they installed an extractor fan.
Ahmet and Sahin Gok, who run Meze Mangal in Lewisham, are facing ruin after being dragged through their council’s bureaucratic purgatory after ‘trying to do the right thing’.
Lovers of Turkish cuisine across London have visited the restaurant – including Lewisham council officials.
But the same council has now handed them a £2.5 million bill or a 14 year jail sentence after the restaurant installed an extractor fan – vital equipment in any major kitchen – without the correct planning permission.
Worse still, they have had their passports taken off of them as they were deemed a ‘flight risk’, despite living and working in the area for 25 years.
They have now gone without sleep, suffered healthwise and left them ‘a shell of themselves’.
Sahin, 57, told Metro: ‘This has taken so much from me, it does not even sound believable when I say it out loud.’
‘We installed the extractor fan to be good people’
(Picture: John Paul Morgan/The Big Retort)
They installed an extractor fan after receiving a complaint from the neighbours over odours and cooking noise.
The brothers happily paid £50,000 to make sure they no longer caused a disturbance – but setting them back financially.
Despite alleviating the problem, they were told they should have applied for additional planning permission as the restaurant is in a conversation area.
They decided to keep the extractor fan in place as they wanted to prioritise keeping peace with the neighbours.
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Forced to miss funerals
During the court process, both their mum and dad passed away, meaning they missed attendance dates and hearing went ahead without them.
The council’s prosecutor also reportedly led the judge to believe the brothers were flight risks, and both their passports were seized, the Last Retort reports.
This meant they were unable to attend the funerals of two separate family members after their parents’ deaths.
‘I pray we do not lose any more family members,’ Sahin said. ‘We have been here for years, and for us to be treated like this, it really does hurt.’
Ordered to pay £2.5 million
The brothers are being prosecuted under the Proceeds of Crime Act, which is often used against drug dealers to recover money earned through criminal activity.
Every penny earned by the restaurant since installation is now considered a ‘criminal profit’, which is why the ordered cost is so staggeringly high.
And they have been told they must come up with the money to pay it, or face a hefty prison sentence.
Their business accounts have also been frozen, meaning they cannot financially operate, and now their staffs’ jobs are at risk.
But the brothers are determined to fight the ruling
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