ADVERTISEMENT A stomach-churning food safety scandal has rocked shoppers after a Ghanaian businessman was caught running an illegal kitchen from his council flat, keeping raw fish in the bath right beside the toilet before turning it into ready meals.
The horrifying conditions came to light on 17 October 2024 when firefighters rushed to extinguish a wok fire at Stephen Akuoko’s flat on Haines Way, Watford. What they discovered inside shocked even seasoned officers: large quantities of fish piled in the bathtub and strewn on the bathroom floor next to the toilet.
A two-year investigation by Watford Borough Council uncovered that Akuoko, trading as Tribal Foods, had been illegally processing and supplying unlabelled, poorly dated cooked and smoked fish products to local supermarkets and corner shops. The meals were later ruled “unfit for human consumption.”
At St Albans Crown Court on 2 April 2026, Akuoko pleaded guilty to two food safety offences: breaching food hygiene regulations and failing to comply with a remedial action notice.
Judge Francis Sheridan delivered a blistering rebuke: “Your little business got bigger than you could handle and you resorted to frankly disgusting techniques – fish on the floor of the bathroom, fish in the bathtub, and then you cooked them up and sold them.”
He handed Akuoko a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years and banned him from operating any food business for five years.
Council officers described the operation as intentional and a “flagrant disregard for the law.” Products often carried excessively long use-by dates and lacked proper ingredient labelling, posing serious risks to public health.
Revolting photos released by Watford Borough Council show the grim reality: dead fish filling the bath in the very same bathroom used as a toilet. The images have sparked widespread outrage online, with many questioning how such conditions went unnoticed for years.
Akuoko, originally from Ghana, had been running the illegal setup from his Watford Community Housing flat for more than three years until the fire exposed everything.
Food safety experts and campaigners have criticized the suspended sentence as too lenient, arguing it fails to deter others from cutting corners with potentially dangerous food.
Shoppers who bought Tribal Foods products in the Watford area are being urged to contact the council if concerned. No recalls have been issued, but the case highlights major gaps in supply chain oversight.
This shocking case serves as a stark warning: when profit trumps hygiene, the public pays the price. Authorities say the lengthy probe proves they will act — but many wonder whether the punishment fits the stomach-turning crime.
Akuoko has made no public comment since sentencing.
