NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Business

Businessman 'secretly mixed horsemeat with beef' in UK scandal

Daily Telegraph UK
7 Jul, 2017 09:55 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Horsemeat was unknowingly sold by supermarkets across the UK after a gang of three men secretly mixed it with beef and then falsified documents, a court has heard. Photo / 123RF

Horsemeat was unknowingly sold by supermarkets across the UK after a gang of three men secretly mixed it with beef and then falsified documents, a court has heard. Photo / 123RF

Horsemeat was unknowingly sold by supermarkets across the UK after a gang of three men secretly mixed it with beef and then falsified documents, a court has heard.

The specific chain of events that led horsemeat to enter the food chain, sending shockwaves through the British food industry, has been publicly outlined for the first time in the trial of a businessman said to have played a "key role" in the scandal.

Andronicos Sideras, 55, is alleged to have mixed horsemeat with beef and then forged paperwork to sell it on as "100 per cent beef" to manufacturers who made products for well-known retailers including Tesco, Co-op and Asda.

The contamination was first identified in Ireland before tests by the Food Standards Agency found horsemeat in products on sale in the UK.

At the height of the furore, thousands of items were pulled from the shelves as supermarkets were forced to apologise amid serious concerns about the food supply chain.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Jonathan Polnay, prosecuting, told jurors at Inner London Crown Court: "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."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Mr Sideras, from London, was arrested in 2013 alongside Ulrik Nielsen, 57, the owner of Danish company FlexiFoods and his "right-hand man", Alex Ostler-Beech, 44, from Hull.

All three were charged with conspiracy to defraud and the latter two admitted their part in the 2012 scam, jurors heard.

Mr Sideras, who denies the charge, co-owned Dinos & Sons, a meat company and sausage manufacturer in Tottenham, north London.

The court heard that FlexiFoods bought horsemeat and beef from suppliers across Europe and had it delivered to Dinos & Sons, which allegedly charged up to four times more than usual storage costs to mix the meats into "horsebeef".

At the time, beef sold for around three euros per kilogram at wholesale prices, while horsemeat was cheaper at two euros per kilogram.

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, FlexiFoods, which has an office in Hull, would sell the mixed meat to Martin McAdam, owner of meat trading company McAdam Food Products, based in Ireland, the jury was told.

Mr Polnay said it was not clear whether Mr McAdam was aware he was buying "horsebeef".

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.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"It goes without saying that they would be told they were buying beef. They would not be interested in horsemeat."

FlexiFoods would then arrange for the mixed meat to be delivered directly from Dinos & Sons to the "large production companies".

Mr Polnay said that for the fraud to work it "needed someone" to physically mix the meat.

He added: "It needed someone to fix the documents, to make them look genuine.

"We say that key role was taken by this defendant - Andronicos Sideras."

Mr Polnay said a trail of falsified invoices, ledgers and email conversations between Mr Sideras and FlexiFoods were "almost direct evidence of the conspiracy".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"They are meticulous in their records," he added. "You can see how they account for their fraud."

He told jurors: "There is no dispute that this fraud was going on - the sole question you are going to need to decide is whether Mr Sideras was involved in it."

A joint probe carried out by City of London Police, the Food Standards Agency and the CPS has taken just over three years to complete.

In January 2015, abattoir owner, Peter Boddy, 65, from Todmorden, West Yorks, became the first person to be convicted over the scandal. He pleaded guilty to failing to comply with food traceability regulations over 17 horse carcasses sold for meat.

The trial of Mr Sideras, expected to last four weeks, continues.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Business

Premium
Shares

Market close: IkeGPS continues run, up 8.6%

Premium
New Zealand

'Bringing the community together': Young new owner's plans for Hastings cinema

Premium
Retail

HelloFresh pleads guilty after ‘subscription traps’ tricked customers


Sponsored

Tired of missing out on getting to global summits to help grow your business?

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Business

Premium
Premium
Market close: IkeGPS continues run, up 8.6%
Shares

Market close: IkeGPS continues run, up 8.6%

Gentrack dipped 4.23% after two large trades, one analyst said.

14 Jul 05:57 AM
Premium
Premium
'Bringing the community together': Young new owner's plans for Hastings cinema
New Zealand

'Bringing the community together': Young new owner's plans for Hastings cinema

14 Jul 04:29 AM
Premium
Premium
HelloFresh pleads guilty after ‘subscription traps’ tricked customers
Retail

HelloFresh pleads guilty after ‘subscription traps’ tricked customers

14 Jul 03:51 AM


Tired of missing out on getting to global summits to help grow your business?
Sponsored

Tired of missing out on getting to global summits to help grow your business?

14 Jul 04:48 AM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP