Men to face fraud charge

Three men accused of mixing horsemeat with beef before passing it off as beef have been charged with fraud.

Ulrick Nielsen, 57, from Denmark, Alex OstlerBeech, 43, from Hull, and Londoner Andronicos Sideras, 54, will appear in court in September accused of dishonestly arranging “for beef and horsemeat to be combined for sale as beef”, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

They are jointly charged with conspiracy to defraud between January 1 and October 31, 2012 following an investigation led by City of London Police.

In 2013 UK supermarkets were rocked by the horsemeat contamination crisis, with products labelled as beef and other meats were found to contain various amounts of horse flesh.

Kristin Jones, CPS head of specialist fraud, said: “The CPS has today authorised charges against three men relating to the sale of mixed beef and horsemeat products which were sold as beef.

“After carefully considering evidence from the UK and overseas, the CPS has decided that there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction and it is in the public interest to charge these three men.”

City of London Police, whichworked with theCPS and the Food Standards Agency, said that OstlerBeech, of Highfield Close, Hull, and Sideras, of Friars Walk, Southgate, north London, were first arrested and questioned in July 2013.

Nielsen, from Gentofte, near Copenhagen, was interviewed under caution in Hull the following month along with a 52-year-old man who faces no further action, the force said.