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BEEF-AND-HORSE MIX COSTS MEAT TRADER £300 FINE
Taken from The Gloucestershire Echo, Friday 27th March 1981.
Sharp-eyed butcher Eric Waltham spotted a horse kidney in a consignment of meat, Cheltenham magistrates were told yesterday.
Mr Waltham, whose shop is in Suffolk parade, Cheltenham, noticed the oddshaped kidney when he unpacked a delivery of what he thought to be beef.
He immediately contacted the suppliers, and when the meat was analysed it was found to contain 75 per cent beef and 25 per cent horse flesh. The initial supplier, Gianfranco Coletto, trading as Bristol Meat Trader, of Whitby Road, Bristol was find £300. He was ordered to pay £248 costs and a £200 advocate’s fee. Coletto was summoned under the Trade Descriptions Act for claiming falsely that the meat was beef. He denied the offence.
The magistrates were told the meat had been ordered by Mr Thomas Cunneen who at the time of the incident owned a shop in Tewkesbury High St.
Mr Cunneen took delivery of the meat and supplied it to F.M.C. Meats Ltd of Gloucesters Road, Cheltenham. That company in turn supplied it to the Suffolk parade butchers’ shop. The horseflesh was discovered before any was sold to the public. Mr Cunneen told the court he had no idea it contained horseflesh.
The meat was to be passed on to F.M.C. – a large and important customer. It would have been “suicidal” for him knowingly to supply horse flesh. He said that when he had received the complaint, he immediately contacted Coletto, who denied all knowledge of horseflesh. In evidence, Coletto alleged that Mr Cunneen had been “begging” him to supply meat and owed him a lot of money. “He was asking for more and more,” he claimed. “I could just not get it for the price.”
Coletto added he had gone to a Taunton meat company, who said they had a mixed consignment of beef and horseflesh. Mr Cunneen wanted to see a sample and then made a firm order. His delivery driver, John Black, had also made it clear it was a mixed consignment, said Coletto. Mr Michael Greet, defending Coletto, said the mixed consignment was sold to Mr Cunneen for considerably less than the market price.
Sharp-eyed butcher Eric Waltham spotted a horse kidney in a consignment of meat, Cheltenham magistrates were told yesterday.
Mr Waltham, whose shop is in Suffolk parade, Cheltenham, noticed the oddshaped kidney when he unpacked a delivery of what he thought to be beef.
He immediately contacted the suppliers, and when the meat was analysed it was found to contain 75 per cent beef and 25 per cent horse flesh. The initial supplier, Gianfranco Coletto, trading as Bristol Meat Trader, of Whitby Road, Bristol was find £300. He was ordered to pay £248 costs and a £200 advocate’s fee. Coletto was summoned under the Trade Descriptions Act for claiming falsely that the meat was beef. He denied the offence.
The magistrates were told the meat had been ordered by Mr Thomas Cunneen who at the time of the incident owned a shop in Tewkesbury High St.
Mr Cunneen took delivery of the meat and supplied it to F.M.C. Meats Ltd of Gloucesters Road, Cheltenham. That company in turn supplied it to the Suffolk parade butchers’ shop. The horseflesh was discovered before any was sold to the public. Mr Cunneen told the court he had no idea it contained horseflesh.
The meat was to be passed on to F.M.C. – a large and important customer. It would have been “suicidal” for him knowingly to supply horse flesh. He said that when he had received the complaint, he immediately contacted Coletto, who denied all knowledge of horseflesh. In evidence, Coletto alleged that Mr Cunneen had been “begging” him to supply meat and owed him a lot of money. “He was asking for more and more,” he claimed. “I could just not get it for the price.”
Coletto added he had gone to a Taunton meat company, who said they had a mixed consignment of beef and horseflesh. Mr Cunneen wanted to see a sample and then made a firm order. His delivery driver, John Black, had also made it clear it was a mixed consignment, said Coletto. Mr Michael Greet, defending Coletto, said the mixed consignment was sold to Mr Cunneen for considerably less than the market price.