The owner of a filthy takeaway in South Norwood has been fined more than £20,000 by Croydon magistrates.
Leroy Houslin, the owner of Yard Style Kitchen, on Portland Road, was found guilty of eight offences last Tuesday (May 21).
Food safety officers, who were initially refused entry to inspect the kitchen, found fridges without power, candle lighting and a catalogue of food hygiene offences.
Council food safety officers first visited the takeaway last April, finding several breaches of hygiene regulations.
After sending a letter outlining the legal requirements, three more visits between May and October found no improvement in standards.
Photos from the council show carrots thick with mould and grease-splattered plug sockets.
Council officers found a fridge with an odour of rotting meat and containing congealed meat and food debris.
They also found hand-washing basins with no soap or hand-drying facilities, while the basin was "bone-dry", which they said indicated staff were not washing their hands.
Councillor Simon Hoar, cabinet member for community safety, said: "The conditions in the premises were truly awful and represented a genuine danger to anybody eating food bought from the place.
"They were conditions that he knew were completely unacceptable and that he wished to keep from the public gaze."
Houslin, who admitted to five of the eight offences personally and three against the company, was fined £21,614.
