This article is from the source 'independent' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/horsemeat-beef-pass-off-two-men-jailed-andronicus-sideras-ulrik-nielsen-food-a7869396.html

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Two men who attempted to pass off horsemeat as beef are jailed Two men who attempted to pass off horsemeat as beef are jailed
(35 minutes later)
Two men have been jailed for their roles in a conspiracy to pass off horsemeat as beef. Two men have been jailed for their roles in a conspiracy to pass off horsemeat as beef. 
Andronicus Sideras, 55, and Ulrik Nielsen, 58, were jailed at Inner London Crown Court for four years and six months and three years and six months respectively. Andronicos Sideras, 55, and Ulrik Nielsen, 58, were jailed at Inner London Crown Court for four years and six months and three years and six months respectively.
  The pair were found guilty of a conspiracy to sell 30 tonnes of horsemeat as beef, most of which entered the food chain.
More follows… Sideras, one of the owners of meat manufacturer Dinos & Sons, mixed the products together before selling the meat to other firms.
Nielsen, the Danish owner of FlexiFoods, bought horsemeat and beef from suppliers across Europe and had it delivered to Dinos in Tottenham, north London.
Nielsen's "right-hand man", Alex Beech, 44, arranged for the shipments to be transferred and handled the accounting.
The majority of the meat, including some from farm horses not sold for slaughter, made it into the food chain and, while the face value of the fraud was £177,869, police said the true cost had probably run into millions of pounds.
Sideras, of Southgate, north London, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to defraud between January 1 and November 30 2012.
Nielsen and Beech, who had already pleaded guilty to the same charge, were sentenced to three years and six months in jail and 18 months suspended for 12 months respectively.
Judge Owen Davies QC said: "It was not confined to this country, not confined to the firms we have heard about, and it's a big issue for the public to be concerned about, but the fact is it was discovered by accident and only emerged as a problem because of your activity.
"It's not a mitigating factor, in my judgement, that other people were at it as well as you."