Arshad M. Khan, co-owner of Sammy’s Halal cart on 73rd Street and Broadway in Jackson Heights, said that he brings his cart to a city Health Department-licensed garage for cleaning every night.
However, there are those who ignore Health Department regulations. The city’s Department of Investigation (DOI) announced on Tuesday, June 30, that it had made six arrests from an investigation into mobile food vending permit fraud.
As a result, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) is now seeking to revoke the permits of 500 vendors who they suspect have participated in fraud.
“We found and exposed six individuals who prospered by engaging in fraud in the City’s food vending process,” said DOI Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn. “This case is also about the violation of health laws intended to ensure sanitary conditions for what is a popular way by which many New Yorkers purchase, consume and enjoy food.”
The DOHMH tipped off the DOI, after it suspected some carts were being used as stand-ins for others, some of which could not pass their inspections.
A DOI investigator posed as a health inspector and tracked carts at the inspection facility in Maspeth. The investigator found that brokers often presented the same carts, claiming they belonged to different applicants.
In some cases, the same cart was presented more than once a day to pass inspection to obtain multiple permits that could be placed on other carts that have not been inspected.
The cost for a six-month or two-year legitimate permit does not exceed a $200 filing fee, but an illegal permit could cost up to $2,000 for a six-month permit and up to $15,000 for a two-year permit.
Khan said that he has not heard of any use of illegal permits in Jackson Heights, and is not worried about the DOHMH’s plan to take away permits because he maintains his cart.
Another mobile vendor, Maria Victoria Nevales, owner of Pique y Pase, paid $200 to file for her permit.
She contended that the city was partly to blame for the incidents of fraudulent permits.
“The city is to blame at times for giving licenses [for street vending] without proper papers presented,” she said.
Nevales cleans her truck at a facility in Queens Plaza. She hopes that the situation is remedied soon, but also does not know anyone using illegal vending documents.
Felix Guevara and his mother, Isabel Alvarez, have been running a Mexican food cart called Delicias Isabel on Roosevelt Avenue since 2007.
Guevara said that his permit cost $35, and that he had heard rumors of illegal permits floating around several years ago, but nothing since then.
Guevara said he had nothing to worried about, assuring that his food is not stored for long periods.
“We do everything fresh right here, I know very clearly that our food is cleaner than the rest,” said Guevara.
However, the Salvadorian native could empathize with those who use illegal permits, saying that everyone wants to work, especially immigrants, and that this country gives them that opportunity.
“This is one country, everyone is an immigrant,” he said. “Even those who were born here, they were [born] from immigrants.”
