A RESTAURANT manager claims he has been the target of a blackmail attempt over a video filmed inside his business.

A man named Jim Janes was hired by Grill and Flames, in Foregate Street, Worcester, to remove all the scrap metal from the cellar on Monday (October 22) as the restaurant is being refurbished.

During the removal process, Mr Janes posted a video on Facebook of the inside of Grill and Flames to suggest that the restaurant is unhygienic.

However, Pramod Tirunagri, chef and manager at Grill and Flames, told the Worcester News: “One of our customers informed us that there is a video on Facebook. I asked Jim why he had posted the video, and all he replied was that he wants £1,000 else he will go to the Worcester News with the video, although the video was all over Facebook.

“He kept telling me he will delete the video if I send him the money in cash immediately. I thought 'Why should I give him any money? We have not made any mistakes here or done anything wrong'. I was not afraid of his blackmail.”

Mr Tirunagri claims Mr Janes has continued to ask him for money through text messages, which he has shown to the Worcester News.

Neil Stroud, front of house manager at Grill and Flames, admitted that the back of the building is not as tidy as they would like it to be – but he insisted that food and drink products are not kept near the cellar and its purpose was for general storage only.

Below are videos of Mr Stroud doing a tour around the building and explaining the works of Grill and Flames.

Mr Stroud added: “My first initial reaction was that someone had robbed the restaurant and posted a video on Facebook, so I rushed down here while Pramod told me it was the removal man.

“We are working on refurbishing Grill and Flames. The cellar is phase one of the development. Jim’s job was to pick up the scrap, which was part one of our clean up process we have been planning to do for a while.

“The reason we hired Jim was for him to clean up down there, so of course it was a mess.

“The restaurant is closed on Monday’s, so the video shows the kitchen after a Sunday evening. Our pre-clean is done each morning we are open before the chefs start cooking.

"As for the dirty stairs on the video, no one would have been down there. So, the dirt that was left on the staircase was from Jim and his removal team traipsing in and out.

“The video is portraying the restaurant in the process of it being worked on. We want to get it all cleaned up. We do not use that cellar area anymore, it has all been locked up and sealed off from outside.”

However, speaking to the Worcester News, Mr Janes denied he had not tried to blackmail the restaurant.

"That is not true at all," he said. "They rang me and they offered me £1,000.”

Mr Tirunagri said he is keen for an environmental health officer to inspect the restaurant to see the hygiene standards.

A Worcestershire Regulatory Service spokesman said: "We are aware of this video and we will be inspecting the premises this week."

Grill and Flames was awarded a Food Hygiene Rating of 4 out of 5 (Good) by Worcester City Council on March 28 this year.

Once the environmental health officer has inspected the restaurant, Mr Tirunagri will contact the police and report Mr Janes for blackmail, he told the Worcester News.

Grill and Flames posted on Facebook in response to the video: “We have seen the video in question and the guy who shot the video was carrying out the removal of all scrap left by the old management. He was part one of our improvements.

"The area you see in the video is the bin area and the cellar. The area beside the toilets is used to store dry foods, spices etc and the shutter is normally closed. The kitchen was closed on Monday and ready for a pre-clean on Tuesday before we begin cooking.

This man was trying to blackmail us for £1,000. We prefer to apologise and show you on going improvements than bow down to such horrible tactics.”