A takeaway food shop was so overrun with rats that staff had to work round 'copious amounts' of droppings.

In one of the worst cases ever seen by Bradford environmental health officers, they found food left out for the rats to crawl over, leaving trails of urine as they went.

Rodent droppings were found all over the floor, in food containers and on shelves where food was kept, and surfaces were greasy, unclean and covered in droppings.

Inspectors found a cucumber nibbled at by mice, and a dead mouse was found behind the chapatti oven.

The Janjua Kebabesh, on Duckworth Lane, Bradford, was immediately shut down and yesterday the owner, Janjua Kebabesh, 43, was banned from running any kind of food business for ten years.

He was also given a two-year conditional discharge after pleading guilty to two charges under the Food Safety Act and ordered to pay £1,370 in court costs.

Harjit Ryatt, prosecuting for Bradford Council, told the city's magistrates' court that a routine inspection turned into one of the worst cases the environmental health officers had ever seen.

Officers had identified an active rodent infestation on a previous visit in 2003, and Janjua, of Winston Terrace, Bradford had voluntarily closed the premises for a short time then.

Mr Ryatt said that rodents have an extremely weak bladder and leave a trail behind them, before telling magistrates how food had been left out exposed to the rats at the Janjua Kebabesh.

He said: "Officers immediately saw there were copious amounts of rat droppings on the floor and the shelves that were used for storage of food and food containers, and rat droppings in boxes that were used for vegetables and things of that nature."

He said that the cooking and eating areas were littered with droppings and that they were also found in the container used to store burger buns.

"All the shelves were found to be unclean, greasy and covered with droppings," Mr Ryatt told the magistrates.

Staff had seen rodents but had been simply working around the droppings.

When one of the officers went to wash her hands she could not find any anti-bacterial cleaning products which made her wonder what the staff had been using, Mr Ryatt said.

Janjua was called to the takeaway during the inspection in March last year and agreed that the shop needed to be shut.

Janjua's solicitor Alan Petherbridge told the court that his client had bought the business from his brothers in 2001 for around £40,000. But he said that it quickly became apparent that he was not going to make the money his brothers had promised.

Janjua had sought advice about the rats and tried to deal with the rodent problem but it could never be beaten.

Mr Petherbridge told the court that his client had lost thousands of pounds by investing in the business and has been left "very much alone" by his family.

He said: "He tried his best in a business that was sinking on its feet from the very first moment he went in. It was a case of inexperience and poor management and he has had his fingers burnt."

Janjua never again wanted to get involved in running a similar business and was no longer involved in the takeaway.

Speaking after the sentence, David Clapham, Bradford Council's Principal Environmental Health Manager, said: "We work very hard with businesses to ensure the highest possible food safety standards in Bradford and the district and it is disappointing when businesses, despite our help, let those standards drop.

"We are pleased with the result in the case and it should serve as a warning to all food outlets that let standards drop. We are here to protect the people of Bradford and any establishment that does not meet the necessary standards of food safety and cleanliness can expect to be prosecuted."