Food firm boss ‘mixed horsemeat in with beef ’

A BUSINESSMAN secretly mixed up to 30,000kg of horsemeat with beef to be sold to British supermarkets, a court heard.

Andronicos Sideras, 55, is alleged to have been part of the greed-fuelled plot to sell the meat for 85p more per kg.

Consumers were ‘deceived about what they were eating’, prosecutor Jonathan Polnay told the jury at Inner London Crown Court.

Mr Polnay said: ‘ This case, stripped to its essentials, is actually very straightforward.

‘It is about lying to people. It is about deceiving people to make money. Or to be more precise, for people to make more money. Like most if not all offences of dishonesty, it was motivated by greed.’

He said there is ‘no dispute’ that the fraud took place but the jury must decide if Sideras, of Southgate, North London, was involved.

Sideras is an owner of meat company and sausage manufacturer Dinos & Sons.

The horsemeat and beef was bought by Danish company FlexiFoods from suppliers across Europe and was sent to Dinos in Tottenham, London before being sold on, the court heard.

Sideras denies one count of conspiracy to defraud between January and November 2012.

Mr Polnay told the court that the owner of FlexiFoods, Ulrik Nielsen, 58, and his ‘right-hand man’ Alex Beech, 44, have already pleaded guilty to the same fraud charge. At the time, wholesale beef sold for £2.60 per kg while horsemeat sold for £1.75.

Mr Polnay said: ‘Whilst at Dinos, and this is the heart of our case, the horsemeat and the beef would be mixed together into a single load. Dinos would create false paperwork and labels to make it look like all the meat being supplied was beef.’ Meanwhile, Flexi- Foods, which has an office in Hull, would sell the mixed meat to McAdam Food Products, based in the Republic of Ireland, the jury was told.

Mr Polnay said it was not clear whether the owner was aware he was buying a mixture of horse and beef labelled as pure beef.

He added: ‘Mr McAdam had the contacts to sell the meat on to large meat production companies that make products for a vast range of well-known companies in this country and in fact all across Europe.’ Mr Polnay said three separate consignments of horsemeat were sent to Dinos & Sons in 2012.

The shipments amounted to 30,000kg, the jury was told.

He alleged that Dinos & Sons were paid a packing cost, which they ‘charmingly described as a sundry charge’ in their invoice, for mixing the meats.

Nielsen, of Gentofte, near Copenhagen, and Beech, from Hull, will be sentenced after the trial, which is expected to last four weeks.