{"id":515861,"date":"2026-03-03T11:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/515861\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T11:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:23:10","slug":"perth-restaurant-fined-40k-after-children-accidentally-served-citronella-instead-of-cranberry-juice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/515861\/","title":{"rendered":"Perth restaurant fined $40k after children accidentally served citronella instead of cranberry juice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two children who unknowingly drank insect repellent after being served citronella instead of cranberry juice at an Italian restaurant in Perth has seen the former owner and the now-closed establishment hit with a $40,000 fine.<\/p>\n

Hannah Lemin, 12, and her sister Olivia, 11, were having dinner with their parents, Marcus and Michele, at Miky’s Italian Fusion restaurant in the Perth suburb of Crawley in June 2024.<\/p>\n

During the meal, the girls complained their cranberry juice tasted like it had been “poisoned”.<\/p>\n

It was later discovered that a bartender employed by the restaurant had given the girls a pink-coloured citronella torch and lamp oil solution.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The bottle of insect repellent was mistaken for cranberry juice. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

The girls were treated in hospital and the incident sparked a Department of Health investigation.<\/p>\n

In Perth Magistrates Court today, the former owner of the business, Michele Angiuli, was found guilty of selling food that was unsafe and failing to exercise due diligence, along with two related charges.<\/p>\n

Magistrate Donna Webb said Angiuli failed to exercise due diligence and\u00a0that the restaurant did not seem to be appropriately managed or compliant in a number of areas, including ensuring staff had food safety certifications.<\/p>\n

Angiuli’s lawyer said his client had since lost his business and no longer worked in hospitality.<\/p>\n

‘It’s just old cranberry juice’<\/p>\n

The ABC interviewed the family the day after the incident, and the girls’ parents described their horror after realising what their daughters had drunk.<\/p>\n

“My daughters just went to gulp it down, and they both spat the cranberry juice out and said, ‘It’s poisoned,'” Michele Lemin said.<\/p>\n

“I said, ‘Don’t be silly,’ and took the glass, and I went to gulp it down and then spat it out.”<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Olivia and Hannah were raced to hospital after the incident. (ABC News: Daryna Zadvirna)<\/p>\n

Marcus Lemin said he ran to the front counter after smelling the liquid and demanded to see the bottle it came from.<\/p>\n

He claimed the staff member initially refused, telling him it was “just old cranberry juice”.<\/p>\n

“He took the bottle [out of the fridge] and placed it under the counter,” Mr Lemin said.<\/p>\n

“That’s when I sort of said, ‘No, you need to give me the bottle, I need to see what it is.'”<\/p>\n

The Mount Claremont family rushed to Perth Children’s Hospital and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital after receiving advice from the poisons information centre.<\/p>\n

“My daughters’ \u2026 stomachs were burning, their fingers and hands were tingling,” Ms Lemin said.<\/p>\n

“They had a headache \u2026 it was awful.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Miky\u2019s Italian restaurant in Crawley has since closed. (Google Maps)<\/p>\n

The children and Ms Lemin were observed in hospital for several hours before being discharged.<\/p>\n

“We’re lucky that the children weren’t younger,” Ms Lemin said.<\/p>\n

“If they were younger children that this happened to, I’d hate to think what would have happened.”<\/p>\n

Speaking after court, Mr Lemin said he had no idea what an appropriate sentence would be, but he hoped the fine sent a message to the hospitality industry.<\/p>\n

“I think the issue for me is more that it drives a bit more rigour in the industry and that we get to a point where maybe business owners in the hospitality industry understand the accountabilities they hold,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Angiuli declined to speak to the media.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two children who unknowingly drank insect repellent after being served citronella instead of cranberry juice at an Italian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[257921,64,63,257920,257922,44,14666,86,14665,45],"class_list":["post-515861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-accidental-poisoning","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-citronella-liquid","tag-mikys-restaurant","tag-news","tag-perth-courts","tag-perth-news","tag-wa-courts","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}