Boss in scam over bogus free range eggs jailed
The near two-year fraud also led to eggs wrongly labelled as organic being sold to consumers in supermarkets and other stores across the country, Worcester Crown Court heard.
Jailing Keith Owen, who admitted three charges under the Theft Act in relation to the fraud, Judge Toby Hooper QC said the 44-year-old defendant had abused the "well-intentioned" trust of the public.
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Hide AdOwen, of Warbage Lane, Dodford, near Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, pleaded guilty earlier this month to three charges of providing false information for accounting purposes to firms in the egg supply sector between June 2004 and May 2006.
The judge also ordered Owen to pay 250,000 in costs and to settle a 3m confiscation order within 12 months, or face a further six-and-a-half years in prison.
Judge Hooper heard that Owen was a middleman who sold battery and "industrial" eggs imported from France and Ireland to other suppliers, who were variously told that they were British, free range, organic or even that they met the RSPCA's Freedom Food welfare standards.
Passing sentence, the judge said Owen's business, Heart of England Eggs Unlimited, had made very substantial profits at the expense of "real-life victims" who mistakenly believed they were buying free-range eggs.
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Hide AdDescribing Owen as the guiding mind of the firm, the judge told the managing director: "Imprisonment there must be, because the offences are plainly so serious that only a sentence of imprisonment will suffice.
"This was all a carefully-planned and executed fraud by false accounting.
"By greed, you have corrupted and destroyed the once-legitimate business which you have known all your life."