The company had at one time processed 85 percent of the condemned poultry from the slaughterhouses and food manufacturers. To provide a cover story for the huge quantities of condemned meat they bought, the gang involved Tantram, who ran Cliff Top Pet Foods, with the tainted meat ostensibly destined for pet food. The scam was carefully planned and prepared. The facilities and systems used to offload the spoiled sausages were then employed on a bigger scale with the condemned poultry that was reintroduced to the human food chain. Nolan described Sheffield meat broker John McGinty's position in the fraud as pivotal.
Unscrupulous traders can avoid monitoring by exploiting the weakness of the system.
The four-year investigation to bring the gang to court was headed by Lewis Coates, an Environmental Health Officer for Rotherham council with the support of two colleagues. This investigation was potentially only part of a much wider problem. As it proceeded, officers became aware that similar scams were operating throughout the country. We did approach MAFF, as did some of the Rotherham Councillors, for aid right from the start of the investigation right through to when all the charges were laid two years later. We got very little help from them.