Halal meat turkey fraud pair jailed for five years

Two men have each been jailed for five years after passing off turkey mince as halal lamb to butchers and restaurants they supplied.

Mahmudur Rohman, 46, and Kamal Rahman, 54, both from Peterborough, were convicted at Leicester Crown Court following a trial last month.

Their conspiracy to commit fraud was uncovered by trading standards.

As well as the prison sentence, the men were disqualified from being company directors for four years.

Leicestershire Food Safety team began testing produce more regularly in the wake of the horsemeat scandal in 2013.

The team found meat being supplied to businesses as lamb was in fact turkey, and traced the suppliers back to Peterborough-based Dutch Bangla Ltd, whose director was Mahmudar Rohman.

The meat was being sold to butchers, wholesalers and restaurants in and around Leicestershire and also as far as Middlesbrough and Portsmouth.

The meat in question was neither lamb, nor halal, the judge in the case said.

Trading standards officers also seized a forged certificate which said the meat had been certified as halal - meaning it had been slaughtered according to Islamic ritual and was suitable for consumption by Muslims.

They estimated Dutch Bangla Ltd made a profit of between £300,000 and £400,000 between January 2013 and October 2014.

The prosecution offered no evidence on all counts against Dutch Bangla Ltd.

Rohman, of Rothbart Way, Peterborough, and Rahman, of Derby Drive, Peterborough, were given 12-month concurrent sentences for selling food not of the nature, quality and substance demanded, and giving or displaying food exposed for sale but labelled wrongly.

They were also each ordered to pay a £120 victim surcharge.