Trio accused of selling horse meat as beef

Alex Beech, aged 43 from Hull; Ulrik Nielsen, aged 57 of Gentofte, Denmark and Andrew Sideras aged 54 of Southgate were charged with conspiracy to defraud and are due to appear at City of London Magistrates’ Court on 27 September.    

Between January and October 2012 the trio and others dishonestly arranged for beef and horse meat to be combined for sale as beef, said the Crown Prosecution Service.

Kristin Jones, head of specialist fraud for the CPS, said there was a realistic prospect of conviction.

"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.​

"This decision comes after a thorough investigation conducted by the City of London Police in liaison with partner agencies.”​

The Crown Prosecution Service is the government department responsible for prosecuting criminal cases investigated by the police in England and Wales.

Charges follow a criminal investigation that saw the City of London Police - the National Policing Lead for Fraud - working with the Food Standards Agency and Crown Prosecution Service, as well as law enforcement agencies from the UK and Europe.

City of London Police detectives first arrested Beech in Hull and Sideras in London in July 2013. In August, Nielsen was also interviewed under caution in Hull along with a 52 year old man. The 52 year old man was released with no further action.

Last year, Peter Boddy and David Moss were sentenced in the first prosecution related to the horse meat scandal three years ago.

Boddy, the owner of a slaughterhouse which sold horse meat to customers, admitted failing to keep adequate records which could trace the provenance of the meat.

He was fined £4,000 per count (total £8,000) and asked to pay costs of £10,442.

Moss, the slaughterhouse manager, was sentenced for falsifying an invoice. He received a four month prison sentence, suspended for two years and asked to pay costs of £10,442.