A restaurateur must pay £25,000 after repeatedly breaching a fire safety order, putting staff and customers at risk.

It is thought the prosecution of Feyzullah Ozgurcu, owner of The Crystal in Colchester, is only the second time the Fire Precautions Act 1971 has been used in this area since it came into force.

The town's magistrates heard yesterday that Ozgurcu continued to use part of the business premises in St Botolph's Street despite a fire service order branding it unsafe and banning it from being open to him or the public.

Earnest Wollner, prosecuting for Essex Fire Authority, said the first floor, used for cooking, and the second floor, where staff slept, had no smoke alarms fitted.

He added the building had one narrow staircase going from the basement to the second floor.

The order banned him from using the two floors unless it was to carry out building work.

The court heard he flouted the order five times in the next six months.

Ozgurcu admitted five breaches of the order.

Maxwell Scott, mitigating, said Ozgurcu, of Great Dunmow, had made a "reasonable" effort to remedy the problems but was blighted by setbacks, including leasehold and builder complications.

Magistrates imposed fines totalling £10,000.

After hearing that the investigations and bringing the case to court had cost the public purse more than £27,000, they ordered Ozgurcu to pay £15,000 towards this sum.