A court in Northern Ireland has ordered the destruction of millions of euro of meat owned by businessman George McCabe and branded him a liar. John McManus, Business Editor, reports

The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA), which sought the order, is now considering bringing criminal proceedings.

More than 250 tonnes of meat from Fermanagh-based Euro- freeze (Ireland) is to be destroyed after Mr McCabe failed to stop an application from the FSA, which seized the meat following an inspection last November of the company's cold storage plant at Lisnaskea. The FSA claimed the meat was unsafe because Mr McCabe had breached food safety regulations and repackaged meat illegally.

Mr McCabe was behind Monaghan-based Ballybay Meats, which collapsed amid controversy in 1989 owing local pig farmers more than €1 million. It was alleged at the time that the Monaghan plant had facilitated the export of falsely labelled pork products to the US, a claim denied by Mr McCabe.

The FSA moved against Euro- freeze after a container load of chicken breasts from China intended for the firm was intercepted at Belfast Port in August last year. The meat in the sealed container bore Italian commercial labels and official health marks. A health mark indicates meat has been inspected and complies with relevant safety law. It also contains information on the origin of the meat and where it was processed.

The FSA told Fermanagh magistrates court earlier this month that its inspection found there were breaches of food standards regulations at the cold store and a number of the pallets or meat bore no health marks or were incorrectly labelled. During the four-week hearing, the court also heard that there were signs that meat had been thawed and refrozen and packaging reused.

In addition meat with an expiry date of 2000 and labelled as coming from Brazil and Uruguay was found in the store.

Delivering his ruling last Monday, the resident magistrate Liam McNally said the FSA also discovered machinery, packaging and health marks from other premises in Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK "which led the inspection team to strongly suspect that Eurofreeze was engaged in the re-packaging of food contrary to the terms of its licence".

Mr McCabe claimed in court that the FSA "threw the book" at his business after failing to locate any Chinese chicken on his premises. He said that "standards and practices in his store are no different than the standards which prevail in all other cold stores in Northern Ireland".

In his findings, Mr McNally states: "Having reviewed the evidence of empty boxes on pallets, the presence of a strapping machine, a vac pac machine, tables and scales all in the same area close to the freezer room, and areas described by Mr McCabe as the packing area, reels of strapping tape, a draft letter offering a re-packaging service and, in particular, A4 sheets of illicit health marks with labels already been taken off the A4 sheets leaving a blank space, and the lies told by Mr McCabe to explain them, I am driven inexorably to the conclusion that repacking contrary to the terms of his licence was taking place at EF."

Mr McNally concluded that, with the exception of three pallets out of 260, the meat did not comply with food safety regulations and was unsafe. He ordered its destruction and that Mr McCabe should bear the cost of the destruction. The FSA welcomed the decision on Tuesday saying: "While the magistrate's decision makes clear his view of the activities undertaken at Euro-freeze (Ireland) Ltd, this is an ongoing and complex case. The wider investigation, informed by yesterday's decision, will continue, with a view to possible criminal proceedings".

Following the original raid on Eurofreeze, the FSA's counterpart in the Republic, the Food Safety Authority raided two businesses in Ballybay linked to Euro-freeze - M&N Meats and D'Arcy Foods - and found illicit health marks. The authority has not commented since its inspections last December.

The most recently filed accounts for the company - for the 12 months to the end of 2004 - show net assets of £151,082 and retained profits of £44,172.