Meat supplier ‘mixed HORSE meat and beef before selling it to factories providing supermarkets’
Consumers and food processors were left out of pocket from the scheme
A BUSINESSMANaccused of playing a key role in the horsemeat scandal turned the meat into "horsebeef" using 30,000 kilos of stored horsemeat, a trial was told.
He then forged paperwork so "horsebeef" could be flogged to massive food companies, a court heard.
The 55-year-old is accused of mixing tens of thousands of kilograms of meat at his cold-store in north London then making fake labels and paperwork so it could be sold as '100% expensive beef'.
He is then alleged to have charged up to four times as much as his usual storage cost for mixing meats, the court heard.
Prosecutor Jonathan Polnay said emails seized from computers at Sideras's company, Dino's and Son, showed forged paperwork was created to pass off the mixed meat.
Horsemeat bought by a company called Flexifoods was stored at Dino's and then mixed with beef and sold as 100% beef, the prosecutor said.
Alex Beech, 44, and Ulrik Nielson, 57, both from Danish-based Flexifoods, pleaded guilty to defraud in October 2016 after they were charged with mixing horsemeat and beef.
An example of the alleged forgeries shown to the jury was fake paperwork purporting to be from a Polish company called FoodService.
Mr Polnay said an example of the forgery was emailed to Sideras by a relative called Vasili Sideras before it was used.
He said: "It says attachment and it says pallet.doc"
The attachment showed an alleged forgery of a document from the company FoodService.
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Mr Polnay said: "It looks like it's from FoodService doesn't it? It's got their name at the top, it says frozen beef trimming, it's got stuff in Polish."
He added: "This is an important document in this case."
Mr Polnay said the subject of the email was 'Polish Sheet Recreation' and added: "You might think it was meant to say re-creation."
He said: "Next we have got another email and it's from Andy Sideras to Ulrik at Flexifood, he used his Hotmail address for this."
It was alleged the email sent by Sideras to Nielson was Sideras 'showing off' the forgery which would enable them to pass off horsebeef as beef.
(This case) is about deceiving people to make money. Or to be more precise - for people to make more money.
Jonathan Polnay
Mr Polnay said: "It rather appears, we would suggest, Sideras showing off his handiwork, which is, I make no bones about it, forged sheets."
The jury was then shown emails from Sideras to Nielson saying 'let me know how you want it filled out'.
Mr Polnay said: "This is almost direct evidence of the criminal conspiracy."
Another email shown to the jury said: "Hi Ulrik, yes we have managed to duplicate it. Both stamps have arrived."
Mr Polnay said: "We say this is going to be a reference to false numbers that are going to put on to pass it on as the genuine product."
The emailed added: "Now I need some of the detail for consigning the first pallet."
Mr Polnay said: "We say the first pallet is the first dodgy shipment they are undertaking.";
And a reply from Ulrik to Sinderas said: "Hi, it looks fine to me, is it exactly the same as the originals?"
The court was also shown evidence which showed about 30,000kg of horsemeat was legally delivered to Dino's for storage and it heard this is what was used to create the horsebeef.
Sideras denies conspiring with others to defraud buyers of meat by selling horsebeef as beef.
The trial continues.
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