AN INDIAN restaurant fined £3,000 earlier this year for a rat infestation has closed its doors.

In April, Purple Mango appeared at Swindon Magistrates Court after the kitchen and storeroom at the restaurant, in Victoria Road, were found to be strewn with rat droppings during an inspection by Swindon Council in March 2010.

The premises is now up for let and the windows have been blanked out, but the letting agent has insisted that the court appearance had nothing to do with the restaurant’s closure.

Stephen Bricknell, of letting agent Kilpatrick & Co, said: “We are not aware of any environmental health issues that are outstanding and we believe that has all been previously resolved. We are not aware that is the reason the premises is now available.

“The premises is available by way of a new lease directly from the landlord and we don’t have any contractual contact or relationship with the former tenants. The landlord has extensively refurbished the property.”

At the court case in April, company director Anwar Aftab pleaded guilty on behalf of the Purple Mango to four food hygiene offences.

Passing sentence, the chairman of the bench Jane Flew told Aftab: “Clearly, this restaurant posed a considerable risk to members of the public who were going out to eat a decent meal produced in clean circumstances, which clearly was not the case. There appears to me to be a climate of poor management, and poor record keeping and poor training in your case.”

The court heard that in the storeroom signs of rat activity included a gnawed plastic bag containing coconut flour and rat droppings, droppings next to and behind a chest freezer and a fridge, two packets of gnawed, uncooked poppadoms, gnawed material among bags containing potatoes and onion and droppings on a shelf above the chest freezer. There were raw, uncovered chickens in the freezer and in the kitchen there were droppings behind a hot cupboard, and debris and gnawed flooring underneath the front cabinet and cooking range.

In an interview with the council, Mr Aftab accepted responsibility. He said he originally had a professional pest control contract but cancelled it when he had not had any pests. He said he and other staff had tried to block up rat holes and kill the rats whenever they saw them. As well as the fine, the firm was ordered to pay £1,525 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.