Owner fined for cockroach-infested hotel

A hotel was so riddled with cockroaches and mouse droppings it failed to meet "even the most basic standards of hygiene", health inspectors said.

Camden environmental health officers who went to Happyvale Hotel in March last year found the cockroaches living in bathroom plugholes and in one case next to a baby and its food.

The Mornington Crescent hotel also put residents in "extreme danger" through overcrowding and a lack of fire escapes between floors.

Owner Stephen Gethin, 60, who is believed to live in the four-storey building, was fined £4,980 at Highbury Corner magistrates' court after pleading guilty to 13 charges.

Gethin was unavailable for comment.