But a magistrate has said the damage to Taj Agra boss Khawar Siddiq's professional reputation could be more onerous than the fine.

And the 14-year restaurant veteran has criticised health authorities for laying charges just one day before a 12-month statute of limitations expired.

Taj Agra in Dickson was closed for six days in February last year after health authorities discovered breaches of the territory's food safety laws.

The ACT Magistrates Court yesterday heard inspectors found the restaurant was ''generally unclean''.

They discovered improperly covered food, unclean equipment, dirt behind a fridge, and both live and dead cockroaches.

The inspectors shut down the restaurant but within six days Siddiq had cleaned the place.

The court heard the cleaning cost between $20,000 and $25,000, and the restaurant lost another $15,000 in earnings because of the closure.

The restaurant was inspected again in February, March and June last year, passing each time.

Siddiq pleaded guilty to one charge of failing to comply with the requirements of the food standards code.

Magistrate Peter Dingwall described Siddiq as a man ''clearly of very good character'' who made charitable contributions to community causes.

He said it was clear Siddiq took ''very real and significant steps to remedy the situation''.

The magistrate said while there were several breaches with the potential to contaminate food no such contamination occurred.

But he agreed with prosecutor Michael Clark that the conditions didn't arise overnight, and said there was a need for general deterrence.

''There are a large number of eating areas in the ACT and unfortunately probably not enough resources to inspect on a regular basis to ensure these sorts of conditions don't develop,'' Mr Dingwall said.

The magistrate said he placed ''significant weight'' on Siddiq's plea of guilty and good character but recorded a conviction.

In a statement through his lawyers, Tetlow Tigwell Watch, Siddiq said he regretted the breaches and ''will do better in the future''.

The restaurateur described the charges as being ''at the absolute low end of the scale'', and stressed the premises had been clean ever since.

Siddiq also suggested health authorities seemed ''in no rush to prosecute in the interests of public health''.

''Charges were only laid one day before the year-long expiry of the limitation for such charges,'' he said.

He also said he regularly supplied dinner vouchers to Radford College free of charge for fundraising, among other charitable causes, and regularly hosted lunches and dinners for the High Commission for Pakistan.