TOWNELEY Park’s Stables cafe has been ordered to pay more than £9,400 after failing 26 hygiene tests.

During an unannounced inspection in May last year, health officials found rancid food, some of which was well past its best-before date.

The Burnley cafe had grease and black-mould infested fridges, floors and walls.

Insect electrocuters, filled with flies, were positioned above food preparation areas, Reedley magistrates were told.

Access to the kitchen wash basin was blocked by oil waste drums which had dirty cloths strewn over them.

In one fridge, there was a metal container holding a beige liquid, later identified as batter, and a plastic tub of marie rose sauce, both of which were fermenting and separating.

No evidence was found that any of the three staff working at the time had any food hygiene training. Company secretary Akeela Faiz, of Buckley Road, Cheadle, represented the business at a sentencing hearing yesterday.

She said her family had owned the business for more than 10 years and that the manager at the time was at fault for the numerous failings.

She said: “I apologise for the breaches. We more or less left the day-to-day running in the last two years to the manager, who we did have confidence in to start with.

“We did not visit as frequently as we should and we did not notice these huge issues and didn’t inspect the problems.

“We assumed the systems in place for recording cleaning and controlling temperatures of the fridges were being adhered to.”

Mohammed Majid Faiz, the company’s managing director, is currently in Dubai and did not attend the court hearing.

Emma Barker, principal legal officer for Burnley Council, said health officers Lisa Fay and Jane Enright conducted the inspection.

Among the other items they found were a lasagne which had been defrosted five days earlier and a shepherd’s pie and chilli con carne which were already eight days old.

The manager of the cafe placed these items in a bin liner for disposal during the inspection.

The business, which is still trading, is now under the management of a Faiz family member.

Ms Faiz added that many of the problems mentioned in cou-rt had been immediately remedied.

Magistrates fined The Stables £330 for each of the 26 breaches and awarded £808 costs.