A MAN found himself arrested for failing to pay off a penny of fines owed to the court totalling more than £9,000.

Ahmet Temel, 30, of Staverton Way, Penhill owes the courts £9,326 in fines from a 2013 case which saw him convicted of contravening hygiene regulations.

In June 2013 Temel was jointly convicted of 16 counts of breaching food safety regulations at the Zam Zam Turkish takeaway in Manchester Road.

Environmental health inspectors visited after receiving a tip-off that it was infested with cockroaches, which they found in small numbers.

They also found they had been using the same surfaces to prepare raw meat and ready-to-serve food, had not drafted a written health and safety procedure or identified potential hygiene risks.

Inspectors also found there was grime on the surfaces, ceilings and floors and staff were not trained properly, while on subsequent visits in October and December the previous year by council officers, there had been no significant improvement.

On Monday morning Temmel appeared in custody before magistrates sitting in Swindon where they heard that an agreement had been drawn up that would see him pay off £350 a month of the debt, but so far this had not happened.

Representing himself in court he told the magistrates that he had lost his business last year, and had hoped to be able to make the monthly repayments but had been unable to. Despite being out of work now he is not claiming benefits.

Chairman of the bench Simon Wolfensohn said they would treat the matter as though he was on benefits, and order that he pay his fine at a rate of £5 a week.

He said: “If you fail to pay that regularly the court will treat that as a persistent and wilful refusal to pay the fines and you could go to prison.

“You need to clear this debt as quickly as you can. As soon as you are in a position to pay more than £5 a week you must. This is not going to go away so you must deal with it.”