Fraudster loses appeal against sentence
A fraudster who conned high-class customers by claiming repackaged supermarket food was organic has failed in his appeal to have his prison sentence reduced.
Neil Stansfield, aged 52, of Poets Way, Newnham, was jailed for 27 months following a trial at Northampton Crown Court in September last year.
He was found guilty of fraudulent trading after the court heard he routinely told staff to dispose of packaging from Tesco and Waitrose and repackage the goods, including meat and pies, as organic.
His firm One Foods Ltd went into liquidation after carrying on the 500,000 scam for five years.
Judges at the Court of Appeal criminal division yesterday rejected Stansfield's appeal for his sentence to be reduced.
Councillor Andre Gonzalez De Savage (Con, East Hunsbury), Northamptonshire County Council's cabinet member for customers and communities, said: "This was a large scale fraud that saw consumers and legitimate businesses deceived out of hundreds of thousands of pounds. We are pleased that the original sentence has been upheld as it reflected the seriousness of the offending.
"Anyone who has information regarding rogue trading can inform Trading Standards by contacting Consumer Direct on 08454 040506," he added.
The initial Trading Standards investigation was estimated to have cost the county council as much as 60,000.
The non-organic pork pies were bought repackaged and shipped off to the London fine foods store Fortnum & Mason, which supplies the Royal Family at Buckingham Palace.
Stansfield, who also traded as Swaddles Organic in Daventry, regularly told his staff to dispose of supermarket wrapping from pork pies and chickens.
Invoices were faked from organic suppliers and non-organic chickens were entered into the company's books as "game", which cannot be certified as organic.
Other purchases were listed as "non stock" to help evade scrutiny from the Soil Association and Organic Farmers and Growers Ltd.
Sentencing Stansfield in September, Judge Richard Bray said: "You were involved in the running of a company which was persistently and deliberately involved in marketing 'organic' food in order to exploit the premium profits."
Stansfield's wife Kate, aged 45 and also of Poets Way, was sentenced to 50 weeks jail suspended for two years for her part in the fraud.
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Thursday 09 September 2010
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