Perth restaurant owner Michele Angiuli learns fate after two girls served citronella instead of juice

A Perth restaurant owner has been fined $40,000 after two girls were served citronella oil instead of cranberry juice at his restaurant leaving them in hospital.

Michele Angiuli, 35, was found guilty of serving food that was unsafe after a bar tender poured citronella instead of cranberry juice at his restaurant, Miky’s at Crawley on June 28, 2024.

Magistrate Donna Webb found Mr Angiuli guilty following a trial and found that he had failed to run the restaurant properly, kept a “disorganised bar” and had on more than three occasions left chemical bottles lying around.

She said the “the potential consequences” of the girls accidentally being served citronella “was significant”.

“I can’t imagine how terrifying it would have been for the parents,” she said.

The trial had heard sisters Olivia Lemin, 12, and her sister Hannah, 11, had just been served their second glass of cranberry juice when they “almost immediately spat it out onto the table” telling their parents it was poison.

The girls’ father Marcus Lemin went to the bar tender Alessio Celoria and demanded to know what he had poured in their drinks.

He gave evidence that Mr Celoria reached into the drink fridge, put the (citronella) under the counter and went back and picked up a new bottle of cranberry juice.

“He said something like ‘it’s just old cranberry juice, I’ll get them a new one’, but I said ‘No, I need to see that one’, pointing to the (citronella bottle).”

“I said some choice language like ‘you f...ing poisoned my children’ and that we were going to hospital and will be reporting you to the health authorities,” Mr Lemin said.

As a parent seeing your children like that knowing that this was an emergency and not knowing what the outcome would be was just awful.

The trial heard the girls complained that their mouths and stomachs were burning. While their mother Michelle Lemin told the court she had similar symptoms, after also taking a sip of the juice, as well as a headache.

The parents took their children to Perth Children’s Hospital. Ms Lemin admitted herself to nearby Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. They were all discharged later that evening.

Outside of Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday Ms Lemin said it was a “horrific” experience.

“As a parent seeing your children like that knowing that this was an emergency and not knowing what the outcome would be was just awful.

“We hope that everyone in the hospitality industry learns from this so it doesn’t happen again,” she said.

Mr Angiuli’s defence lawyer Dan Johnson had argued at trial that although his client agreed with the facts the blame should have been put on Mr Celoria instead.

“The main issue is due diligence … Mr Angiuli had reasonable cautions and exercised all due diligence,” Mr Johnson said.

He said the citronella bottle had ended up on the bar counter because it had been placed there by a well-meaning friend of Mr Angiuli earlier that afternoon.

Mr Angiuli had been using it to fill up candles for the outside seating.

His friend took it to the bar and left it there without telling Mr Angiuli.

In her judgement Ms Webb noted that Mr Angiuli had left “chemical bottles” outside in the al fresco area on a number of occasions before the incident with the friend returning them to behind the bar.

“I accept that (Mr Angiuli) is vicariously liable for the conduct of his bartender” Ms Webb told Mr Johnson.

“The issue is the conduct of your client in leaving items outside in the al fresco area and that not being the first time that occurred”.

Ms Webb also noted that prior to the incident Mr Angiuli had failed to appoint a food safety officer despite being told on two prior occasions by authorities to do so.

“Your restaurant was not appropriately managed or compliant in a number of areas” she said.

The court heard that the bad publicity from the incident prompted Mr Angiuli to sell his business months later giving up his “lifelong” dream of owning a restaurant. He has since reskilled and works in financial trading as well as making earnings through AirBnB.