MAN WHO PUT PET PONIES IN BURGERS
Fraudster guilty of claiming horsemeat was 100% beef
A SUPPLIER who mixed meat from pet ponies with beef was yesterday warned he faces jail.
Andronicos Sideras was rumbled by ID chips left in products. He was found guilty of fraud. A top cop said meat was “en route to make pies”.
GREEDY Andronicos Sideras laced beef with horsemeat and passed it off as the real thing in a cynical bid to boost his firm’s profits.
And the businessman even used cuts from beloved pets in his shocking scam.
Tiny ID chips found in meat sold by his company Dinos & Sons were traced back to two pet riding ponies called Wiktor and Trak from Poland and valued hunt horse Carnesella Lady kept in Galway.
The 55-year-old was yesterday warned he could face jail for the scandal after being found guilty at Inner London crown court of fraud.
Judge Owen Davies QC granted him bail until next week but warned: “I have to consider a prison sentence, and the fact I am granting you bail today is no indication of what I have to do.”
PIES
Alex Beech and Ulrik Nielson from Danish-based firm Flexifoods had earlier admitted their part in the scandal.
Prosecutor Nina Montalbano said: “These men, motivated by greed, knowingly sold horsemeat to manufacturers to increase their profits.”
It is feared the gang had been selling industrial quantities of contaminated food for years.
They were caught months before the 2013 horsemeat scandal that led to thousands of products being pulled from the shelves of major supermarkets.
Sideras, of Southgate, North London, forged papers to claim the meat was 100% beef. His two accomplices found buyers. The bogus products were destined for use in ready meals, burgers, sausages, frozen food and pies.
The fraud was exposed when a surprise inspection of a cold-store in Northern Ireland found the pet horse meat. Detective Chief Inspector Dave Manley of the City of London Police said around 30 tons was involved in the conspiracy. He added: “It is the first time officers have had to go out and get their hands in meat. It is quite unusual. Meat analysed was en route to be processed and most likely would have been used to produce ready meals and pies.”
Details of firms which would have used the meat did not form part of the investigation.
Sideras, Beech and Nielson will be sentenced on Monday.
There are the only people so far prosecuted over any horsemeat scandal.