Two former restaurant owners whose Gravesend curry house was infested with mice have been successfully prosecuted by the council.

Raja Manoharadhas, 30, and Sebin Sebastion, 28, ran the Currys and Dosa restaurant in Wrotham Road until it was closed down in March after Gravesham Council inspectors found it was crawling with mice.

At Dartford Magistrates’ Court on July 24 the men, both of Zion Place, Gravesend, pleaded guilty to three counts of breaking food hygiene regulations.

The court heard the restaurant had been praised by customers for its food but that the conditions it was prepared and cooked in were shocking.

The defendants were told there was "no excuse for the conditions found" and the amount of mouse droppings clearly visible was "totally unacceptable" in a premises producing food.

They were ordered to pay the council’s full costs of £1,458 and each given 180 hours community service to be completed in the next year.

Manoharadhas and Sebastion also have to pay a £60 victim surcharge and have been banned from managing food premises for a year.