Owner of Universal Foods Wholesale Limited Hamil Miah has been found guilty of falsely distributing chicken as halal meat at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court.
The BBC has reported that Hamil Miah, from Cardiff, faces up to 10 years in prison after being found guilty of 10 counts of fraud and food safety offences by falsely distributing chicken as halal meat to restaurants and takeaways.
During a two-week trial at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court, the jury heard that Miah had mislead investigators by creating a “smokescreen” of companies. Restaurants and takeaways believed they were buying halal chicken from different companies, but Miah was actually running the entire operation himself.
Food safety and labelling breaches
The jury also heard that poor hygiene and cross-contamination at the warehouse meant that none of the chicken could be classified as halal and that there were periods of time when the warehouse did not receive any halal meat from wholesalers but continued to supply chicken as halal. The chicken did not have the correct labelling to enable it to be properly traced.
Miah denied involvement in day-to-day processing of the chicken, claiming that on-site processing was handled by the company Universal Poultry Ltd, run by his friend Noaf Rahman, who had previously pleaded guilty to food safety offences, and that Universal Foods Wholesale used pre-processed halal chicken.
Inspectors from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Cardiff council had visited the warehouse on multiple occasions and suggested improvements. Covert monitoring was also carried out on the business.
A spokesperson at the FSA said: “Staff members from the FSA were part of a multi-agency group that supported the Shared Regulatory Services (SRS) of Bridgend, Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan in the execution of a warrant at Universal Foods Wholesale Ltd in March 2020. The SRS led the subsequent investigation into the relevant offences.”
Miah has been granted bail, and sentencing for Miah and Rahman will take place together.
