a slaughterhouse boss at the centre of the 2013 horsemeat scandal has been fined £8,000 after failing to provide paperwork for horse carcasses he sold peter boddy admitted one count of failing to abide by eu meat traceability regulations after being unable to back up claims he had sent nearly 40 carcasses to italian restaurants another 12 horses from his slaughterhouse in todmorden in west yorkshire were sold without any records ever being kept the 65 year old claimed that rather than sell them on without knowledge of where they were going, many were purchased by caterers in the market for horsemeat peter boddy (left) and david moss (right) have become the first people sentenced over the 2013 horsemeat scandal the pair worked together at an abattoir in yorkshire where records of more than 50 carcasses were lost  boddy and his slaughterhouse manager david moss were involved in the 2013 scandal which saw hundreds of people mistakenly sold the meat they were both sentenced at southwark crown court today, the first of anyone involved in the furore, with moss given a four month prison sentence suspended for two years the court heard how boddy did not produce adequate paperwork for 55 horse carcasses he had sold and accepted 17 animals into his abattoir without the appropriate documents when questioned, he told officials that 37 had been sold to two italian restaurants in manchester and leeds investigators could not verify his story, claiming neither of the establishments existed 'when inquiries were made of the relevant councils, nothing was found that confirmed the existence of businesses with those names,' said prosecutor adam payter the court heard how in 2013, food standards agency requested paperwork for carcasses that passed through the slaughterhouse in 2012 at the time moss admitted much of their business was done 'cash in hand' and without a detailed paper trail days later he forged an invoice requested as a result of the meeting southwark crown court heard how the 65 year old claimed almost 40 of the carcasses were sold to italian restaurants but this was never verified  while investigators could not tell exactly when and where the animals had been slaughtered, mr payter said there would have been no cause for dishonesty if they had worked to the rules peter boddy was fined £8,000 for breaching eu rules on the traceability of food general food law states that 'food and feed business operators shall have in place systems and procedures to identify the other businesses to which their products have been supplied' however, boddy could not back up claims he had sent 40 horse carcasses to italian restaurants after admitting one charge of failing to abide by this traceability law, the maximum sentence boddy could have faced was a two year sentence and an unlimited fine 'there would be no cause to cover up the provenance or destination of horsemeat unless there was something underlying wrong with that horsemeat,' he said 'it can’t be said where they were slaughtered, when they were slaughtered, whether it was on site   but horsemeat passed through peter boddy’s slaughterhouse without being properly documented' he admitted while critics could point to the slaughterhouse for the supply of horsemeat involved in the scandal, doing so was purely 'speculation' there was no proof to suggest either boddy or moss tried to pass off horsemeat as anything else which was the basis for public outcry in 2013 sentencing judge alistair mccreath emphasised this, but noted the importance of properly documenting meat for health and safety reasons moss told investigators much of the slaughterhouse in todmorden in west yorkshire was done 'cash in hand' ‘accordingly i must sentence each of you not on the basis you were complicit in putting horse meat into the human food chain ‘what i do however sentence you for in your case, peter boddy, is for the failure to keep proper records and, in your case david moss, for committing an act of forgery to frustrate the investigation’ judge mccreath added: ‘there may be those who may say, 'well why does this matter?' well people do care and they care for good reason ‘the traceability of food products, here meat, is of critical importance in relation to public health ‘if meat causes ill health then it is important that those responsible for investigating the cause and trace it backwards and backwards and backwards to find where the problem lies and to prevent the problem escalating and those who keep poor records frustrate that very important public interest and interest which touches on public health and public safety ‘it matters so because the pubic are entitled to be confident in that process to know that if something does go wrong,’ he said products by findus were among those to have traces of horse found in them  in january 2013, it emerged tesco and other major retailers had been selling burgers which contained  large proportions of horse the contaminated meat was found to  have come primarily from a factory in ireland, which apparently sourced  its 'beef' from poland as well as tesco, burger king, the  co op, asda and aldi scrabbled to repair their public image and withdraw  tainted products from shelves the scandal escalated in february when it was revealed that frozen food firm findus had produced beef  lasagne which was almost entirely made up of horse meat in response to traces of the animal being found across europe, the food standards agency instructed 2,501 tests to be carried out in britain twenty nine positive results were found in seven products which had, by the time of testing, already been recalled these included some findus lasagne as well as some aldi lasagne and spaghetti bolognese   all made by the comigel food processing company in france some of the products were found to contain up to 100% horsemeat
food standards agency boddy abattoir italian peter boddy first yorkshire 2013
peter boddy sold 55 horse carcasses without keeping record of the sales  abattoir boss from yorkshire claimed 37 were sold to italian restaurants  but food standards agency investigators could not back up his claims  he was found guilty of failing to produce proper paperwork for carcasses  there is no proof to suggest boddy tried to pass off horsemeat as beef  it is impossible to know where meat ended up because rules were broken  he and a colleague are the first involved in 2013 scandal to be sentenced 