TWO brothers who ran a cockroach-infested restaurant and takeaway must pay almost £18,000 in fines and legal costs.

Council inspectors also found fruit being stored in the staff lavatory, poor ventilation and dirty chopping boards.

The fine is the largest imposed by Salford magistrates on individual owners of food premises.

Salford council environmental health officers found the infestation in the kitchens at The Naz takeaway and restaurant, on Monton Road, Eccles, owned separately by brothers Abdul Hannan and Abdul Mannan .

The takeaway on the ground floor and the restaurant above were a breeding ground for a German variety of cockroaches after both owners failed to keep up with cleaning. A pest control company had been brought in to try to get rid of the disease-carrying insects but the brothers failed to carry out further treatments to keep them away.

In addition to a joint fine of £12,000, the brothers were ordered to pay £5,673 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching food hygiene and health and safety rules and failing to comply with improvement notices.

Cockroaches were found throughout the premises by council officers in December 2006.

They had first visited in August that year and served the brothers with separate notices to improve standards.

Both owners have now cleaned up their act and the takeaway and restaurant passed recent council inspections.