Three men have appeared in court charged with fraud relating to the horsemeat scandal of 2012.
Andronicas Sideras, 54, from Southgate, north London; Ulrik Nielsen, 57, from Gentofte in Denmark; and Alex Ostler-Beech, 43, from Hull, are accused of conspiring together and with others to defraud customers by mixing horsemeat with beef to be sold dishonestly as beef that ended up in products such as burgers.
The three appeared at City of London magistrates court on Tuesday. They were jointly charged after an international investigation led by the City of London police specialist fraud division for the Food Standards Agency.
They were arrested and interviewed under caution in the summer of 2013; a fourth man interviewed at the same time has not been charged.
The Crown Prosecution Service said it was bringing the charges, which relate to the period between January and October 2012, after careful examination of evidence from the UK and overseas.
The three men were released on bail and ordered to reappear at Inner London crown court on 25 October.
