The owner of Chaudhry’s TKC restaurant in Southall, has pleaded guilty to eight food hygiene offences after council officers found their premises to be dirty and pest-infested.

MMM Caterers Limited appeared at Uxbridge Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, 5 August following a string of failed food hygiene inspections and sustained non-compliance with basic food safety standards.

Chaudhry’s TKC has been subject to a number of written warnings, enforcement notices and two temporary closures over the last three and a half years and had traded under a food hygiene rating of zero out of five stars since December 2012 until April 2014.

The owner requested a follow up inspection in mid- 2013 to try and improve this rating. Despite being told that a visit was imminent, a surprise inspection by the Ealing Council’s food safety team on 5 October 2013 once again found major failures. The officer carrying out the inspection found dead flies on work surfaces, mouse faeces behind shelving, poor food storage systems, and a lack of hot water for washing hands or equipment.

Mouldy and filthy chopping boards were also in use. Food hygiene officers use a special device called a luminometer to measure the cleanliness of surfaces. A reading of below 50 is expected for a clean surface, but when one of the premises’ chopping boards was tested it returned a reading of 3978.

A follow up visit three weeks later uncovered more horrors including German cockroach infestation with live cockroaches found inside a refrigerated display containing uncovered food and inside kitchen cabinets. The business had also failed to rectify the problems uncovered at the earlier inspection when a hygiene emergency prohibition notice was served.

Follow up inspections during November found continued evidence of mouse and cockroach activity, dirty equipment and poor cleanliness throughout the premises which led to the council taking the business to court.

MMM Caterers Limited was ordered to pay £1500 for each of their eight offences, plus the council’s full costs of £3,615.88 and a victim surcharge of £120, bringing their total costs to £15,735.88.

Councillor Julian Bell, leader of Ealing Council, said: "This business’s continued failure to meet basic food hygiene standards and to deal with pest infestations has put their customers’ health at risk. I would advise everyone to always check the food hygiene rating of any business before they shop or dine."

"This prosecution should serve as a warning to all food businesses that it doesn’t matter how well established they are; we will take tough action if they don’t operate within the rules."