A Maidstone landlord has revealed his horror after finding a troublesome tenant had left cigarette packets, mouldy food and more than 6,000 beer cans strewn across his Sittingbourne flat.

Shocking pictures show the extent of the clean-up task Graham Holland, 56, had to face when he entered the vacated property in Park Road.

Also featured among the mess was a filthy bathroom, with the toilet overflowing and the bath used as something of a rubbish skip.

Mr Holland has since had to spend thousands of pounds clearing the mess and renovating the flat, which has now been rented out once again.

He said: "It was certainly a shock. The floor was absolutely filled with junk. It was unbelievable the amount of cans and packets on the floor.

"When I saw the mess I was expecting rats and spiders to come crawling out but we didn't find one bug.

"He obviously went to the fish and chip shop a lot because there were bits of fish on one side of the room and then black, rock-hard chips on the other. It was absolutely disgusting.

"We started to clear it but had to give up after a couple of days because there was just so much of it."

Mr Holland was unable to even access the flat for a number of years as the 68-year-old tenant refused to let anybody in.

He reportedly claimed at the time the mess had accumulated because a woman in a ground floor flat had locked the gate, meaning he couldn't take the rubbish down, but Mr Holland disputed that version of events.

The landlord said, however, that he had found no problems with the tenant, who has since died, early on in the tenancy.

He swiftly moved out of the property last year after telling the landlord he was suffering from clinical depression, which was when the mess was discovered.

Mr Holland and his wife, Nicole, made several trips over a period of two weeks to remove the rubbish, during which "hundreds" of bin bags were used.

He then began a process of completely renovating the property, which included fitting an entirely new bathroom.

The landlord said the ordeal had taken its toll on his own mental health but was glad to have brought the property back up to standard.