£24,000 fine for restaurant after droppings found and signs rats had 'eaten poppadoms'
A restaurant with a chronic rodent problem has been fined more than £20,000 after dropping were found.
Rat and mouse droppings were found under a fridge, on a shelf and by a freezer when environmental health officers visited Rugeley Spice Indian Limited in Market Street on September 22 last year.
The inspection was actually a return visit after the restaurant was given a two-star hygiene rating eight days earlier.
At a hearing in Cannock Magistrates Court on Friday, District Judge Kevin Grego ordered the restaurant to pay a £24,000 fine as well as additional costs.
During the visit, inspectors found droppings across the premises. This included on shelving by open poppadoms, which showed signs they had "formed a meal for some of the rats some time earlier" before inspectors came across them.