Meat supplier ordered to pay nearly £20,000 for fake halal labels

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A meat wholesaler and its director have been ordered to pay nearly £20,000 by a judge at Birmingham Crown Court today (5 September) after admitting applying counterfeit halal certification labels to products which were then sold to a Birmingham supplier.

Munawar Zaman, director of Bradford-based Zaman Brothers Wholesale Halal Meat Limited, admitted supplying 65 boxes of meat and fat to Golden Delight Foods Limited, based in Clayton Road, Saltley, between 23 January 2012 and 8 September 2012, which carried labels indicating that they were Halal Monitoring Committee (HMC) certified when in fact the labels were counterfeit.

Zaman also admitted having in his possession 5,000 consecutively numbered labels in the style of those issued by the HMC with a view to applying them to meat products which had not been inspected or labelled by the HMC, which would then be sold as having been HMC-certified.

All HMC approved meat must go through a stringent traceability process, with an HMC inspector present each time approved meat is subject to any process. The inspector issues stickers and tags when the meat is cut.

On this occasion, an HMC inspector discovered meat in Birmingham bearing counterfeit HMC stickers. The HMC notified Birmingham City Council's Trading Standards team who attended the premises and seized five boxes of meat which were traced to Zaman Brothers in Bradford, where raids were conducted on two premises.

The company was fined £7,500 plus £4,451 costs, while Zaman was given a 12-month community order with a requirement to carry out 120 hours' unpaid work and ordered to pay £4,000 costs. A confiscation order was also made for £3,500.

Jacqui Kennedy, Birmingham City Council's Director of Regulation and Enforcement, said: “Advertising and supplying non-Halal Monitoring Committee products and passing them off as approved is a serious criminal offence, as it deceives consumers into thinking the products they are purchasing are certified and approved by a reputable authority.

“Munawar Zaman has shown a flagrant disregard for the consumers who purchased his products in good faith, so I am pleased that he has now been brought to justice.

“His conviction should serve as a warning to others that we take such matters very seriously and will not hesitate to prosecute business owners who mislead consumers in this way.”

ENDS

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