Two men have been sentenced for falsely passing off chicken as halal meat to restaurants and takeaways across south Wales.
Helim Miah, 46, of Kilcredaun House in Cardiff, who owned Universal Food Wholesale Limited, was found guilty after a trial earlier this year.
He was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison for fraudulent trading and trading while bankrupt.
Noaf Rahman, also 46 and from Cardiff, admitted fraudulent trading offences before the trial began. He was given a 24‑month suspended sentence.
The offences were uncovered following an investigation that led to 2,840kg of frozen meat being seized from the pair’s Cardiff warehouse.
The investigation, carried out by Cardiff and the Vale Shared Regulatory Services in January 2019, found that the meat could not be properly traced, sell‑by dates had been altered and chicken was transported in dirty vans without proper chilling across south and west Wales.
According to the BBC, the court heard that the restaurants and takeaways believed they were dealing with a number of different companies and thought they were buying halal chicken.
Some of the chicken had been
bought as halal meat, but correct hygiene procedures were not followed in the warehouse’s cutting room. Non‑halal meat was also processed in the same facility, meaning none of it could accurately be described as halal.
There were long periods when the warehouse did not receive halal meat from wholesalers but continued to supply chicken to businesses who believed it was halal.
The prosecution said the names of the affected businesses would not be revealed in court due to the “highly sensitive” nature of the offences.
Prosecutor Alex Greenwood told the court that the companies set up by Miah and Rahman allowed them to hide “behind a corporate veil” which was deliberately created to provide a “confusing trail”.
Judge Vanessa Francis said the pair had a “cavalier attitude” and were equally culpable, adding that the “harm in my view is extensive” and there were “flagrant breaches over a significant period of time”.
“This was a disaster waiting to happen,” she said. “It is a matter of relief that it never did, with the unsafe meat sent out of your premises.”
written by abi kinsella
