A restaurant has been forced to fork out more than £6,000 after food safety inspectors found rodent droppings and dirty equipment.

Haringey Council food safety inspectors made the grim discovery when they visited Arocaria restaurant in The Broadway, Crouch End, in March last year.

Fridges were caked with dirt and surfaces were littered with rat droppings. Electricity fittings were hanging from the wall in the kitchen and inspectors found that staff had no training in food hygiene.

The owners of the venue had already been warned in the past and, despite further inspections by the council, failed to clean up their act.

On December 17, Tottenham Magistrates’ court found the restaurant owners guilty of five breaches of hygiene regulations, fined them a total of £5,000 and ordered them to pay £1,320.50 in costs.

No one from the restaurant appeared at the court hearing. The restaurant has now closed and the lease is up for sale.

Haringey Council cabinet member for environment Councillor Stuart McNamara said: “Haringey is proud to boast a wide variety of restaurants that residents and visitors can enjoy and the vast majority are clean and safe.

"We will not tolerate the small minority who demonstrate a blatant disregard for the health and safety of their customers."