The owners of a Manchester takeaway where cockroaches were seen crawling around near food have been ordered to pay a total of nearly £6,000.

Representatives of Mughal Taste Ltd on Bury New Road, Cheetham, pleaded guilty to three food safety offences at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, January 27.

Imran Usmani, a director of the company, attended the hearing on behalf of the company, which was fined £3,000 with £849.60 costs and a £15 victims of crime surcharge.

His business partner, Najma Bari, also pleaded guilty to three food safety offences, and was fined £1,050 with £849.60 costs and a £15 victims of crime surcharge – a total of £5,779.20 for both prosecutions.

Manchester City Council officers visited the takeaway following a complaint from a member of the public last January.

One cockroach was spotted crawling up a tiled wall, while another was seen behind a metal fixture, both above a food preparation area.

Another pair of cockroaches was found under a workbench, while there was also grease encrusted onto walls, food crumbs behind fridges and cookers, missing tiles and holes in walls allowing the pests to enter the kitchen.

Usmani and Bari agreed to close the premises immediately. Mughal Taste was allowed to reopen four days later, after the infestation had been dealt with and the kitchen had been thoroughly cleaned.

During City Council interviews, both admitted they knew there was a pest problem and Bari claimed the building had been in a bad state when they took it over.

Councillor Richard Cowell, Manchester City Council’s Executive Member for the Environment, said: "The City Council works closely with restaurants and takeaways across Manchester to provide advice about keeping premises clean and pest-free, so there is no excuse for the kind of conditions we found at Mughal Taste.

"Residents should be reassured we will not stand for these appalling hygiene standards, while irresponsible business operators who think they can get away with endangering the health of their customers should be warned that we will prosecute them."