Four years on, first seller convicted in horsemeat scandal

A FAMILY wholesaler was finally convicted of passing horsemeat off as beef yesterday – four years after the scandal broke.

Andronicos Sideras, 55, was at the centre of a £200,000 conspiracy that saw 30,000kg of horse offcuts go in burgers, sausages and ready meals.

The Cypriot is the first to be convicted over the affair which led to the recall of products worth tens of millions of pounds across europe.

Demand for popular products plummeted as suspicious DNA was detected in lasagne, spaghetti bolognese and pies.

Two other men, Danish food supplier Ulrik Nielsen, 58, and his ‘righthand man’ Alex Beech, 44, pleaded guilty last August.

But food safety expert Professor Chris elliott, who led a review into the scandal, said others have almost certainly escaped justice. he said: ‘Three people alone did not do that. There must have been others out there who have got away with it.’

The scandal exploded in January 2013 when it emerged inspectors had discovered horsemeat labelled as beef at a frozen food store in Northern Ireland.

Food standards experts brought in City of London Police whose investigation went on to span Ireland, Poland, Denmark, France and Italy.

More than 2,500 tests were carried out across Britain, with Tesco, Asda and the Co-op all affected.

Investigators traced some of the cheaper lines back to family-owned Dinos & Sons in Tottenham, London where Sideras was based.

Prosecutors said Danish- owned company FlexiFoods, based in hull, would buy horsemeat and beef from suppliers across europe and have it delivered to the store.

Key paperwork was fabricated by Sideras before the food was sold on to manufacturers.

At the time, beef could be sold at a wholesale price of £2.60 per kg, while horsemeat was cheaper at £1.75 per kg.

Yesterday, a jury at Inner London Crown Court convicted Sideras of one count of conspiracy to defraud between January and November 2012. he admitted storing pallets of horsemeat but said he did not know how it ended up in food.

Sideras will be sentenced on Monday with Nielsen and Beech.