Prison sentence for 'Heart of England' egg fraudster

The so called "Heart of England Eggs fraud trial" has been concluded today at Worcester Crown Court.‪ Keith Owen pleaded guilty to three counts of "false accounting" and was sentenced to 3 years in prison (to serve 1.5 years then release on conditional license) and ordered to pay a total of £3.25million (£3million confiscation order and £0.25million prosecution costs).

In light of Keith Owen’s guilty plea, the prosecution elected not to proceed with the charges against the other defendants (all of which will lie on file) in the trial. and the judge welcomed this in the public interest.

After the case was concluded, Richard Jones the Head of Defra’s Dairy, Eggs and Poultry Teams, who led the Egg Marketing Inspectorate’s operations throughout the investigation said:‪

"This fraud was initially identified as a result of routine risk-based inspections undertaken by the Egg Marketing Inspectorate.‪

There followed a lengthy and complex investigation by Defra Investigation Services, leading to a prosecution conducted by Defra’s Litigation and Prosecution Team.‪

It is important to put this case into context as the majority of eggs sold in the UK are marketed in accordance with the law;‪

However, to protect UK egg producers, packers and consumers when criminal activity is detected, Defra will take action - the successful prosecution of Keith Owen and the overall sentence imposed by the court sends a clear message to anybody who might be tempted to embark on a similar fraud.‪

The industry, from producers through to retailers, should not tolerate criminal activity. Enforcers and industry will continue to work together to identify - and bring to justice - anyone who is defrauding genuine egg producers, packers and consumers."

Chairman of BFREPA John Retson said of the prosecution result,

"I am pleased that punishment has been meted out and to the tune of a significant fine and custodial sentence. This sends out a strong message to anybody else who might think they can dupe the public to beware. The majority of the egg industry are honest and hard working and we will continue to support Defra and the inspection authorities to weed out bad eggs such as Mr Keith Owen."

As a result of this case, the British Egg Industry Council (BEIC) with the ’Lion’, have introduced a raft of measures, one of which is the stamping of all eggs since January 2010. Consumers can therefore now be reassured that eggs cannot be tampered with as in this case.

With the implementation of method of production stamping on farm of production under the ’Lion’ code of practice, BFREPA feel the consumer can be reassured that the eggs they are buying are genuine and our advice to any uncertain shopper is to look for the little Red Lion on packs or make sure their eggs come from a local BFREPA producer.