THE proprietor of The Curry Place has pleaded not guilty to 19 charges relating to food hygiene offences.

Mahmod Ali, 47, of Euclid Street in Swindon, will return to court on July 4 in either Swindon or Chippenham for a preliminary hearing before his trial.

Mr Ali is accused of failing to comply with food safety improvement notices on May 9 2017 which related to inaccurate food information.

He is also charged with contravening several EU provisions concerning food safety and hygiene between May 17 and September 11.

He allegedly failed to keep proper documentation and records for his business, train and supervise his workers, ensure they washed their hands regularly, store raw materials and ingredients properly, protect food against contamination, keep the premises and equipment clean, and throw out old storage containers.

Specifically, he is charged with keeping a large pan of curry gravy at 34 degrees C after being left to cool for two hours when it should have been kept chilled, and inspectors found ready-to-eat prawns, chicken and yoghurt kept out of temperature control.

Plus, his staff allegedly used a dirty, stained serviette to dry their hands, the same roll of cling-film was apparently used to wrap raw and ready-to-eat food, refrigerator seals were damaged and split, a wall-mounted plate rack was rusty, flaking and filthy, and the restaurant door was coated in smears of grease.