The owner of an award-winning café must pay out thousands for food safety offences that include leaving raw chickens next to a block of cheese.

Helen Pattinson, 47, who ran Hell’s Kitchen, in Stockport centre, until it closed in summer 2013 was found guilty of eight breaches of the Food Safety Act.

She was fined £2,550 with £5,000 costs at Manchester Crown Court on Thursday following inspections in September 2012 and again in May 2013.

After the first inspection the café, on Hillgate, was given a zero hygiene rating. It had been named as producing the best builders’ breakfast in Stockport in 2012.

The other most serious offences were deemed to include food being washed in sinks full of dirty equipment, a build up of food debris on the counter, dirty walls and having a dirty pie warmer.