THE owner of a butcher’s shop who cheated customers by labelling and selling imported meat as ‘best British’ pork, chicken, beef and lamb is behind bars.
Simon Drust’s business, The Meat Shack in Studley, was also fined £300,000 for its part in the fraud and ordered to pay Warwickshire Trading Standards’ costs in bringing the case.
After initially denying the charges, Drust, 51, of St Johns Close, Studley, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to offences of fraud and fraudulent trading.
The Meat Shack, based at the Spernal Garden Centre in Alcester Road, Studley, also pleaded guilty to fraud and ‘engaging in commercial practices which contravened the requirements of professional diligence.’
Drust was jailed for two years and nine months, while as well as the £300,000 fine, the company was ordered to pay the £54,527 costs.
Deputy Judge Richard Griffith-Jones also ordered £127,690 in bank accounts which had been subject to a restraint order to be confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Drust’s partner and company secretary Susan Mitchell, 53, of the same address, was given a Police Caution, and the charges she had faced were allowed to lie on the court file.
Prosecuting on behalf of Warwickshire Trading Standards, Tony Watkin said for many years Drust was a market trader, selling meat from a mobile butchery before setting up The Meat Shack with Mitchell in 2014.
In April 2015 it was incorporated, and the charges reflected a course of conduct both before and after that date.
“It traded very successfully in terms of turnover. It was presented as a farm shop selling local and organic produce,” said Mr Watkin.
Adverts were placed online and in local newspapers emphasising that all the meat and poultry it sold was British.
The trigger for a Trading Standards investigation came in January 2015 when a woman bought a packet of chicken breasts labelled ‘British,’ and then found a Netherlands label underneath.
A Trading Standards officer visited the shop and found tubs of chicken with the same mislabelling.
After The Meat Shack’s incorporation, the farm shop was refitted with Union Jacks throughout, and adverts claimed it sold ‘local wholesome food’ and British beef, pork, lamb and chicken.
But checks with The Meat Shack’s suppliers showed it was buying large quantities of New Zealand lamb, Dutch and Danish gammon, Dutch and Belgian chicken, and Brazilian and Irish beef.
The annual turnover at that time was around £350,000 – and in June 2016 the fraudulent activity intensified with Drust’s purchase of a set of scales that could print its own labels.
“He was buying meat, foreign meat, and repackaging it and relabelling it as British local produce,” said Mr Watkin.
A Trading Standards officer’s visit in September revealed mislabelling as well as the sale of out-of-date food, and on a further visit in November Drust was caught red-handed relabelling Irish beef as UK beef, and Spanish pork as free range UK pork.
Mr Watkin added Drust had a single previous conviction when, about 20 years ago, he was fined £7,000 for an offence of mislabelling.
Quentin Hunt, defending, argued for a suspended sentence, saying : “If one looks at the advertisements, one can see there are the false pieces of advertising in terms of being British.
“But price is a major factor in this business, and it is not known what proportion of people who bought mislabelled meat would have bought it in any event.”
He handed in references, including some from customers, and said Drust supported charitable works through the business, which was now ‘clean and compliant,’ and laboratory reports show the standard of the meat it sells to be satisfactory.
“Lessons have been learned, and this is a gentleman who is unlikely to trouble the courts again,” he said.
However judge Griffith-Jones, while acknowledging that the business provided employment and there was no suggestion of poor hygiene there, was unmoved by his plea and put Drust behind bars for fraud.
