More than 36 million eggs were falsely passed off to British stores as being free-range or organic between 2004 and 2007, a court has heard.
In the Irish High Court in Dublin last week Defra applied for the extradition of an Irish egg distributor over his alleged involvement in a multi-million euro fraud. The owner of a company in Worcestershire is also alleged to have been involved.
The extradition application was for Pearse Piggott, 48, of Gort, County Galway, who runs the Pearse Piggott & Sons egg distribution company.
The warrant claims Piggott was involved in a scheme in which eggs were misrepresented as being free-range or organic, renumbered and labelled with incorrect supplier names. He faces charges of conspiracy to defraud, false accounting and perverting the course of justice.
The court heard that Keith Owen, owner of Heart of England Eggs, a company based near Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, had falsified documentation to show his firm had sold a large quantity of eggs laid by caged hens to Piggott and his Irish business.
Piggott, it is alleged, then supplied false invoices and statements of accounts to Owen to show he had sold free-range or organic eggs of a similar value back to the British company.
This arrangement, it was claimed, enabled Owen to offset the fictitious sale of eggs from caged birds against the fictitious purchases from Piggott. The alleged offences were said to have taken place from January 2004 to the end of December 2007, and the court heard that an investigation of the Bromsgrove business by the Defra Investigation Service revealed that more than 36 million eggs, passed off as free-range or organic, came from caged hens.
A Garda detective told the court that when arresting Piggott - a prominent local businessman and former all-Ireland hurling star - he had asked if he knew what the charges detailed in the warrant were about, and he had replied: "Yeah, I do."
Piggott was granted bail and is due back in court later this month, when he is expected to resist the attempt to extradite him.
As a result of the investigation, Owen has been charged with conspiracy to defraud, perverting the course of justice, using a false instrument and fake accounting. His trial is expected to take place next year.
It is not clear which retailers the eggs ended up being sold through, but at the time of the investigation Heart of England Eggs packaged and supplied eggs to Deans Foods (now Noble Foods), which supplies all of the UK's major retailers.
Once Deans Foods learned of the investigation it ceased trading with Heart of England Eggs.
In the Irish High Court in Dublin last week Defra applied for the extradition of an Irish egg distributor over his alleged involvement in a multi-million euro fraud. The owner of a company in Worcestershire is also alleged to have been involved.
The extradition application was for Pearse Piggott, 48, of Gort, County Galway, who runs the Pearse Piggott & Sons egg distribution company.
The warrant claims Piggott was involved in a scheme in which eggs were misrepresented as being free-range or organic, renumbered and labelled with incorrect supplier names. He faces charges of conspiracy to defraud, false accounting and perverting the course of justice.
The court heard that Keith Owen, owner of Heart of England Eggs, a company based near Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, had falsified documentation to show his firm had sold a large quantity of eggs laid by caged hens to Piggott and his Irish business.
Piggott, it is alleged, then supplied false invoices and statements of accounts to Owen to show he had sold free-range or organic eggs of a similar value back to the British company.
This arrangement, it was claimed, enabled Owen to offset the fictitious sale of eggs from caged birds against the fictitious purchases from Piggott. The alleged offences were said to have taken place from January 2004 to the end of December 2007, and the court heard that an investigation of the Bromsgrove business by the Defra Investigation Service revealed that more than 36 million eggs, passed off as free-range or organic, came from caged hens.
A Garda detective told the court that when arresting Piggott - a prominent local businessman and former all-Ireland hurling star - he had asked if he knew what the charges detailed in the warrant were about, and he had replied: "Yeah, I do."
Piggott was granted bail and is due back in court later this month, when he is expected to resist the attempt to extradite him.
As a result of the investigation, Owen has been charged with conspiracy to defraud, perverting the course of justice, using a false instrument and fake accounting. His trial is expected to take place next year.
It is not clear which retailers the eggs ended up being sold through, but at the time of the investigation Heart of England Eggs packaged and supplied eggs to Deans Foods (now Noble Foods), which supplies all of the UK's major retailers.
Once Deans Foods learned of the investigation it ceased trading with Heart of England Eggs.
Free-range and organic eggs
Free-range and organic eggs increased their share of the market from 26.5% in 2004 to 38.9% this year Sales of organic eggs peaked at 134 million eggs in the second quarter of 2008, before falling as the economy deteriorated In February Sainsbury's became the largest UK retailer to stop selling battery-farmed eggs.
Free-range and organic eggs increased their share of the market from 26.5% in 2004 to 38.9% this year Sales of organic eggs peaked at 134 million eggs in the second quarter of 2008, before falling as the economy deteriorated In February Sainsbury's became the largest UK retailer to stop selling battery-farmed eggs.
No comments yet