THE owners of an Indian restaurant were fined a total of £8,000 after a room used to store food and equipment was infested with mice.

Srigobinda Deb and Nikil Ranjan Das, who own the Chennai restaurant on Kidderminster Road, Dodford, were also ordered to pay costs of £1,177 by Redditch magistrates last Wednesday.

At a previous hearing both defendants pleaded guilty to charges of failing to store food in a hygienic manner, failure to maintain the premises in good condition, failure to ensure that correct procedures for the control of pests were in place and that the construction of the premises did not allow for good food hygiene.

The breaches were discovered during an inspection carried out by Bromsgrove District Council's environmental health officers in January 2005, and voluntary closure of the storeroom was ordered.

Prosecuting on behalf of the district council, Sarah Sellers said officers were concerned that the defendants had not noticed the infestation.

She added that possible entry points for pests were not sealed and there was dirt in "hard to reach places".

However, Mrs Sellers acknowledged that the storeroom had been knocked down and there had been no repeat of the problems.

Defending the pair, Mandeep Bassi said that they did their best to act on the problems as soon as they came to light.

He added that supervision had been a problem, but Mr Deb and Mr Das had now taken a more "hands-on role" at the restaurant.

Mr Bassi asked magistrates to consider their financial position as they had only been in business for around two years.

"New businesses don't normally make much money in their early years," he said.

"Their financial means are not great at the moment."

Magistrate Dev Khosla said there had been a "serious breach of food hygiene" and ordered the defendants to pay £4,000 each - £1,000 for each offence.

Speaking to the Advertiser/Messenger following the verdict, Mr Deb and Mr Das reiterated that the problems had been acted upon and were a one-off occurrence.