Louise & Peter Tantram

A Lincolnshire couple were involved in a massive operation to sell condemned poultry fit only for animals for human consumption, Hull Crown Court heard on 8/9/00. Peter and Louise Tantram of Ingham, are accused of selling heavily disguised petfood to butchers, market traders, restaurants, take-aways and supermarkets. The Tantrams, who run the Cliff Top Boarding Kennels and Cattery and five other people, all deny conspiracy to defraud businesses by selling poultry meat not fit for human consumption. The others charged are Clive Boid of Oldcotes, near Worksop, Nottinghamshire and his son Andrew Boid of Carlton in Lindrick, near Worksop; Darren Bibby of Oldcotes; Kevin Wilson of Cleethorpes, Humberside; and Timothy Powell of Hove, East Sussex. Clive and Andrew Boid, along with Bibby, were bosses at Newark-based Wells By-Products Ltd which processed poultry meat for pet food. Wells bought huge quantities of condemned birds which were packaged ostensibly as pet food and invoiced to Ingham-based Cliff Top Pet Foods. Cliff Top which was run by Peter and Louise Tantram cleaned up the meat before it was moved on. Wilson and Powell, both food brokers, then helped sell the food on. Clive and Andrew Boid and the Tantrams are also charged with conspiracy to sell meat of pet food grade which was falsely represented as human food quality. They all deny the charge.

On 21/9/00 fines and costs totalling nearly £12,000 have been imposed on a Leicestershire company for dumping more than 1,100 tonnes of waste from a meat processing operation into a lagoon. Scalford Construction Co Ltd of Melton Mowbray, pleaded guilty to two charges relating to the unlicensed deposit of animal by-products. The company was fined £5,000 for knowingly causing the deposit of controlled waste. A further £2,000 fine was imposed on the company for failing, without reasonable excuse, to comply with a notice served by the Environment Agency. They were ordered to pay costs of £4,811.57.