3:42pm Thursday 11th March 2010
A Worcestershire company boss who conned the public by marketing battery hen eggs as free range or organic has been jailed for three years and ordered to pay £3 million compensation.
Father-of-two Keith Owen was said to have created "an armoury of deception" with false paper trails to cover up his fraudulent activities as head of Heart of England Eggs, of Bromsgrove.
He was exposed after one of the biggest investigations carried out by the Department of he Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which involved extensive inquiries in France and Ireland.
Owen, aged 44, of Hill Top Poultry Farm, Warbage Lane, Dodford, pleaded guilty(admit) at Worcester Crown Court to three counts of false accounting over a two-year period. He was ordered to pay the compensation within a year or face another six and a half years in prison.
Owen must also pay £250,000 prosecution costs and has been disqualified as a company director for seven years.
Judge Toby Hooper QC said that Owen's greed had corrupted and destroyed the legitimate business which he had known all his life. He had abused public trust by inventing a system to cheat customers who bought eggs in High Street shops and supermarkets.
His packing business bought in cage bird eggs at 35p a dozen and sold them for twice the price, claiming they were free range or organic. It is estimated that 26 milliion eggs passed through his firm.
Defra inspectors became suspicious after random checks at shops in Worcester, Warwick and Leamington Spa. Eggs were stated to be from producers who had either died, ceased production years before or were turkey and chicken farmers. Ultra-violent light revealed their true origin.
Amanda Pinto, prosecuting, said Owen imported eggs from France and Ireland and these were given apparently genuine stamps at his premises. But some of them should not have been sold to the public but have gone into food processing.
Lorry drivers were also suspicious when they delivered loads or foreign eggs and then were given the same eggs to take away after they had been re-packaged. Miss Pinto said Owen was able to under-cut genuine producers of free range and organic eggs.
The judge praised the actions of the lorry drivers who had gone to their union as "amateur detctives." They had helped to crack a carefully-planned fraud.
John Kelsey-Fry, defending, said Owen had admitted that he had profited from conduct which had dishonestly taken advantage of the consumer. He said that all the outlets for the eggs were not too concerned about their provenance and it would be "inappropriate" to name the companies.
Owen had lost his business and good name. Property would have to be sold to pay the compensation and some loans had already been called in.
After the case, Defra spokesman Richard Jones said the information from the lorry drivers was critical to the operation.
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