The owners of two cafes where customers were allowed to smoke shisha pipes have been ordered to pay a total of nearly £3,000.
Samir Merza, who runs Blue Mist on Wilmslow Road in Rusholme, was fined £200 with £500 costs and a £15 victims of crime surcharge after pleading guilty to two counts of allowing smoking in a smoke free place during a Manchester Magistrates' Court hearing on January 11.
Meanwhile, Lara Café Limited, the company that Blue Mist trades under, was fined £1,300 with £711.71 costs and a £15 victims surcharge after pleading guilty to the same offences.
Manchester City Council wrote to the owners last summer warning them they must stop all smoking inside the premises.
However, City Council environmental health officers visited the premises, along with police, nearly a month later and found customers still smoking the Middle Eastern water pipes inside the cafe.
Although Merza was interviewed on the scene, officers visited a second time several weeks later, and again found customers smoking shisha pipes.
Mathim Saleh, manager of Shotz, also on Wilmslow Road in Rusholme, was also fined £75 after pleading guilty to permitting smoking in a smoke free place during a hearing on December 21. He was also fined £50 and ordered to pay £50 costs for a separate offence of obstructing officers.
City Council officers, along with police and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs officers, visited the premises last summer and found customers smoking.
Although the City Council wrote to Saleh warning him about this, the officers spotted customers smoking shisha pipes during two subsequent visits, and on one occasion he tried to stop the officers taking photographs to be used as evidence.
Councillor Nigel Murphy, Manchester City Council's executive member for the environment, said: "These businesses were given every opportunity to comply with the law, and we even warned them that their actions were illegal, but we were left with no choice but to prosecute them.
"These prosecutions should serve as a warning to other businesses who think they can get away with breaking the law. They will be taken to court and face a harsh penalty. People may think that smoking shisha is not as harmful as cigarettes, but all the evidence says this is not the case."