A pie factory owner who claims she has been forced to close her business has been told she has until the end of the month to get her premises up to scratch.

Sonja Seaman, who supplied Bermuda Pie Factory products to outlets all over the Island from her kitchen in Devonshire, told that her application to have her environmental health licence renewed was turned down last month.

The mother-of-four, who is also involved in a dispute with her landlord which has seen her locked out of the pie factory premises in Roberts Avenue, said: ?I?ve been in business for 11 years and I was running the current location for the past eight years. Now I?m locked out of the building and the business is not operating. I?ve pretty much lost our customers for now.?

Ms Seaman claimed an environmental health inspector, Ms Richardson, visited the premises in March and told her verbally everything was fine.

But she said when she attempted to get her new licence she was told she was ?not in compliance?. Ms Seaman said she also attempted to change one of the names on the licence from that of her husband Roderick Seaman, from whom she is getting a divorce, to her girlfriend Edith Knight.

?I don?t know what they mean by not in compliance,? she said. ?I was told everything was OK.?

A spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Health said: ?The department confirms that Ms Richardson has spoken with Ms Seaman recently and she informed Ms Seaman that she, Ms Richardson, had noted improvements there from her previous visits, not that the premises was satisfactory for re-licensing or that everything was fine.

?Since January this year, Ms Richardson has made several visits to the property. On her last visit in mid-March 2006 she noted that the premises did not appear to be in use and there was a note on the door directing patrons to other locations for Pie Factory products.?

The spokeswoman said the premises had a provisional licence until the end of this month. ?If requirements are still not met by that time, then the property must close until such time that all requirements are met,? she said.

She said a senior environmental health officer was willing to work with Mrs Seaman to enable her to meet the re-licensing requirements, adding Mrs. Seaman could operate the business with the goal of being in compliance by the end of this month.

?The Department of Environmental Health suggests that Ms Seaman should proceed with the understanding that any current legal issues will also need to be resolved prior to the pie factory?s re-occupation of the premises.?

Ms Seaman, who is now in Atlanta, Georgia for six months attempting to set up a restaurant and pie business, admitted that she had not paid her rent for February and March for Roberts Avenue. She said it was because a broken door had not been fixed.

Her landlady, Joanne Musson, said she had no comment on why the locks had been changed. But she added: ?She needs to pay her rent.?