Andronicos Sideras tells court his business in London changed labels on pallets but was not involved in mixing meats togetherA businessman has denied trying to pass horsemeat off as beef as he began giving evidence at his trial for conspiracy to defraud. Andronicos Sideras admitted holding and relabelling consignments of horsemeat for a business contact but told the jury that storing it was perfectly legal. He added that his firm only changed the labels because pallets of the meat had been damaged in transit and had to be repacked. Sideras said that, when the shipments of horsemeat arrived at his premises, some of the shrink-wrapped pallets needed to be restacked and wrapped. His lawyer, Michael Levy, asked if this was a “dishonest thing as part of a conspiracy to deceive or disguise”.

Source: The Guardian July 19, 2017 14:18 UTC