Shropshire trio face court date over meat fraud

Dale Seymore, Darren Williams and Fahd Bux all pleaded guilty in April this year to being concerned in an arrangement which facilitates the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property in offences that took place around 2013.

The trio, aged between 47 and 54, used the details of a legitimate meat trader in the UK to make huge orders of meat to companies in France and Belgium without paying for them, even making one company bust.

The three men all played different roles in the operation – Seymore, from Elm Close in Oswestry, stored the meat in a warehouse in Rednal, while Williams purchased the produce through two farm shops that he owned.

Bux set up and helped with the website used to give the operation a legitimate front.

At Shrewsbury Crown Court on Thursday, Recorder A Reynolds adjourned the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) hearing to Friday, November 24.

Seymore, who played a lesser part, received a 16-month sentence suspended for two years, while Bux and Williams were both given 20-month sentences suspended for two years.