On the day a local paper carried a front-page report that a Chinese restaurant had been fined £20,000 after a cockroach was found in the king prawns, every copy within 20 miles vanished from the shops. The buyers were two men who spent the afternoon visiting more than 40 newsagents buying up to 50 copies of the paper at a time.

The mystery buyers snapped up 1,400 copies of the Bristol Evening Post at a cost of nearly £500. Cam and Kiem Mu, millionaire owners of the Sea Palace restaurant in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, denied being behind the buy-up.

The buyers told newsagents that they were collecting copies of the evening paper because it carried a report on George Best’s funeral that they wanted to keep as a memento. There was no such story in the paper.

The Evening Post distributes 1,400 copies of its North Somerset edition to 45 newsagents in the Weston area. Monday’s edition carried a front page report of the fines imposed by magistrates in Flax Bourton after the Mu brothers admitted eight charges of failing to comply with food hygiene regulations.

Cam, 33, and Kiem, 31, accepted responsibility for the state of the restaurant and were each fined a total of £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,333.50 between them. They have since spent £6,000 clearing the restaurant up.

The brothers own bars and clubs across the South West in addition to the Sea Palace, which has been the family for the past 18 years.

After the hearing the brothers were asked for a comment, according to a source at the Bristol paper. They reportedly pointed out how much they spent on advertising and suggested it might be better not to run the story. Told it was appearing on the front and it was too late to do anything about it, they are said to have replied, “We’ll see about that”.

The Mu brothers yesterday denied having anything to do with the bulk purchase. Cam said: “Don’t be silly, why on earth would I do that? That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.”

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