A takeaway in Rickmansworth has been accused of "flagrantly breaking the law" after being fined for flouting food hygiene regulations.

Paya Cuisine and Yummy Pizza, High Street, has been fined £978 after pleading guilty to breaking hygiene regulations at Watford Magistrates Court on Friday, February 6.

But owner and manager of Paya Cusine, Salaman Qushqaie, said the prosecution followed a three-month spell where the takeaway was extremely busy after deciding to open a Chinese takeaway alongside the pizza takeaway business.

He said: "Between June and September, we did not clean enough.

"Now everything is fine. We have enough staff to keep up with business and we have cleaned up the shop."

Mr Qushqaie said staff at the takeaway had spent three weeks cleaning everything, apologised to customers and vowed it would not happen again.

During a visit in September, inspectors said they found tubs of uncovered prawns and scallops, a saucepan full of liquid and covered in white and blue mould underneath a wok and food debris left in the sink, which inspectors said was difficult to clean.

Councillor Sara Bedford, lead member for health at Three Rivers said: "Standards of hygiene in restaurants and takeaways across Three Rivers are generally high.

"The council inspects such premises regularly to make sure these standards are maintained, so that residents and visitors can eat out with confidence.

"Paya Cuisine & Yummy Pizza’s hygiene standards were totally unacceptable and they were flagrantly breaking the law.

"We did not hesitate to take them to court and if the situation had been only a little worse the establishment would have been shut down."

The business has been ordered to pay almost £1,000, which includes £550 worth of fines and council costs of £400.

The pizza and Chinese take-away was prosecuted for two offences, "failing to put in place, implement and maintain a permanent procedure or procedures based on HACCP principles to eliminate or reduce hazards to a safe level" and "for failing to keep premises clean and maintained in good repair and condition".

The authority said it "found that a cleaning schedule was written entirely in Persian - the native language of the defendant - and staff on the premises did not speak Persian.

Health inspectors added: "It was also found that a diary extract to report checks and problems for the week beginning 22.9.14 had been completed as satisfactory for the week beginning Monday, September 22 until Sunday, September 28, when the inspection only took place on Thursday, September 25."