Restaurants given heavy fines over sham curries

Test purchases by trading standards officers at Aroma, on Zetland Street, Northallerton, and Moti Raj, High Skellgate, Ripon, found lamb curries made entirely from beef.

Both businesses said they had been supplied with the wrong product after ordering unspecified meat, rather than lamb, from their suppliers.

Aroma Redefining Ltd and Motiraj Contemporary Ltd both appeared before magistrates where they pleaded guilty to providing food not of the nature demanded and applying a false label to that food.

Aroma was fined £2,500 with £529 costs and a £120 victim surcharge. Motiraj was fined £3,000 plus costs of £547 and a £120 victim surcharge.

North Yorkshire county councillor Chris Metcalfe, executive member for trading standards and planning services, said: “Consumers should not be subjected to this type of scam which can only be described as a form of food fraud.

“If a consumer pays for a lamb dish then he or she should be given lamb and not a cheaper alternative.”