Businessman jailed over horsemeat scandal

The businessman at the centre of a Europe-wide fraud in which falsely labelled horsemeat led to thousands of tonnes of meat being recalled has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

A Dutch court found that two meat wholesalers owned by Willy Selten had bought and processed a minimum of 330 tonnes of horsemeat in 2011 and 2012, selling it on to customers who believed they were buying pure beef.

“By selling largely to foreign buyers he contributed to a negative image of the Dutch beef industry, causing damage to the sector” for his own profit,” the court in Den Bosch said in its judgment yesterday.

“As boss of two companies [Selten] was guilty of forging invoices, labels, and written declarations, and using these forged documents to trade meat.”

Ingeborg Koopmans, prosecuting, previously told the court Selten was “a true master of deception”. Prosecutors had demanded Selten be sentenced to five years.

“He deceived his staff, his supervisors, and consumers, whose confidence have been harmed... The reputation of the Dutch meat industry has been damaged,” Koopman added.

The horsemeat scandal broke in January 2013 after genetic tests found traces of horsemeat in burgers sold at two British supermarkets. Adulterated beef products were discovered across Europe, with suppliers in France and the Netherlands also found to have mislabelled horsemeat.

Selten said that the mislabelling was due to carelessness and was unintentional. The court rejected this explanation, pointing out that accounts and invoices did not indicate that the company dealt in horsemeat at all.

According to prosecutors, Selten’s companies bought 300 tonnes of horsemeat from suppliers in the Netherlands, Ireland, and Britain in 2011 and 2012, selling it to more than 500 companies across Europe. The scandal led to at least 50,000 tonnes of meat being recalled.

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