A rat scurried past an environmental health inspector as she checked up on a Huddersfield town centre takeaway following complaints.

The Kirklees Council officer was forced to immediately close Grillish because of what she found, Kirklees Magistrates’ Court in Huddersfield was told.

The incident marks the latest in a string of court appearances that the Cross Church Street premises has had.

In March the takeaway was fined for its poor food hygiene practices.

And earlier this year the business was prosecuted for selling mutton kebabs containing a mix of beef and chicken.

Yesterday magistrates heard that it was visited by the council’s environmental health officials on April 24.

The inspection was prompted by complaints from a customer who saw rat droppings while using the public toilet.

As the inspector moved some furniture during the visit a live rat ran past her.

Further evidence of a rat infestation, including droppings, were found and she immediately closed the business due to the risk to public health.

Grillish was served with a hygiene emergency prohibition notice, keeping the premises closed until any necessary pest control and repairs could be carried out.

It was closed for three days but has since been reopened as the council is satisfied that a health risk no longer exists.

Council prosecutor David Stickley confirmed that everything there was now in order.

He said: “The premises has stepped up and taken steps to improve the business and it has now reopened.”

Magistrates ordered the business owner, who was not present in court, to pay £300 prosecution costs.

Grillish hit the headlines after selling a Trading Standards test purchaser a mutton seekh kebab containing a mixture of cow, sheep and chicken DNA.

The owner at the time, Waqas Iqbal, was fined and blamed the supplier of the products for not correctly informing him what the meat was.

Then in March he was fined again for 14 offences related to food safety and hygiene breaches and failure to comply with a hygiene improvement notice.

Problems included failing to keep all equipment coming into contact with food clean, disinfected and in good repair.

Staff failed to ensure that food packaging was stored in a manner to prevent exposure to a risk of contamination.

Food was not kept at the required temperature to prevent the growth of harmful toxins or pathogenic micro-organisms.

The business was not kept clean and maintained in a good condition and staff were not adequately trained.

In August 2016 poor standards of hygiene were observed and the takeaway received a zero rating on the Scores on the Doors website.

Then last September council officials visited again and the rating was slightly improved to one out of five, with Iqbal given advice on the issues.

Many of these had not been resolved by the next visit and a decision was made to issue the business with a hygiene improvement notice, giving Iqbal a set amount of time to carry out improvements.

Iqbal told magistrates when he appeared in court over these charges that he has since sold the business due to his ill-health.