The owner of a Gorse Hill Indian takeaway and restaurant, who claimed to have had 20 years owning his business without any previous issue, had previously been found guilty in court of breaching food safety laws on two separate occasions.

Malak Bukshs, the owner of Spice 47 on Cricklade Road, expressed surprise last week after his food hygiene rating was dropped to zero-out-of-five, saying “that some people in the council are after me” and that “they are trying to kill my business”.

But Mr Bukshs had previously faced magistrates in 2006, when his restaurant was known as the Swindon Balti, and again last year.

Asked about his previous appearances in court, Mr Bukshs said: “Yeah, those happened. I was away, I went to Pakistan.

“That’s the two issues – in 20 years I have not had any complaint from the customers.”

In 2006, he pleaded guilty to four charges relating to food hygiene, admitting that dirty, wet newspapers had been used to line shelves and rice had been kept in plastic sink bowls on the floor. He also accepted that only one of the fridges in the kitchen was working, with cooked meat stored under raw meat inside.

He was ordered to pay over £10,000: £5,000 to improve the state of his kitchen, a fine of £2,000 and a demand of £3,232 for court costs.

And last year he again found himself before the magistrates, where he admitted eight breaches of hygiene at the rebranded New Swindon Balti.

Offences including leaving a box of onion bhajis outside overnight to cool, having a lack of formal cleaning procedures in place and storing raw then ready-to-eat foods in the same containers without disinfecting them.

While accepting that he had faced problems in the past, Mr Bukshs said that he now ensures that hygiene at Spice 47 is kept to the required standard.

He said: “I make sure every day when I come in that everything is clean and proper. If not, then I tell them and make sure they clean it.

“If I go away, I leave my nephew and he tells me if it hasn’t been cleaned.”

With visits from Swindon Borough Council’s food safety to his property ongoing, Mr Bukshs said: “It’s not a major issue – I don’t know what’s going on.

“I try my best, you know, I am careful. I check myself every day and if anything is wrong I tell my staff ‘don’t do it like that, do it like this’, which is the proper way.

“I say to my customers they can come in if they want to check the kitchen.”

A council spokesman said last week: “We visited Spice 47 after receiving a complaint from a member of the public and, unfortunately, we found a notable drop in food hygiene standards.

“Our food hygiene officers are dealing with the issues raised and are in regular contact with the owner of the restaurant. A request to re-score the restaurant is currently being considered.”