Some of the chicken meat was only fit for pet food

The poultry, some fit only to be used as fertiliser and the rest intended for pet food, was distributed to businesses across the North West, Nottingham Crown Court heard on Tuesday.

B Davies Meats, based in Bury, Greater Manchester, bought meat from suppliers and sold it to premises in Manchester, Bury, Preston, Burnley and Oldham.

Among its suppliers was Denby Poultry Products Ltd, of Denby, Derbyshire.

The court has heard the firm sold thousands of tons of chickens and turkeys unfit for human consumption, from its rat-infested factory.

It bought reject poultry carcasses, butchered them and sold them on to companies across the UK.

Dangerous bacteria

Those firms then distributed the meat to leading supermarkets, old people's homes, restaurants and schools.

Ben Nolan QC, said that some of the birds supplied by Denby Poultry were likely to have contained bacterial hepatitis, staphylococcus and E coli-septicaemia.

Staff from B Davies Meats told the court that their deliveries in Greater Manchester and Lancashire often included fillets and birds from the Denby factory.

Driver Peter Patersall said: "The chicken breasts from Denby looked just like breasts from any other company, it looked like it was of good quality."

The delivery rounds included Kwik Save stores in Higher Broughton, Lower Broughton, Burnage, Cheetham Hill, Hazel Grove and Rusholme.

Charges denied

Fellow driver Gareth Storey said that he took meat to Kwik Save stores, cafes and butchers in Blackburn, Burnley, Oldham and Leyland.

Five men deny conspiracy to defraud in connection with the supply of unfit meat between August 1995 and March 2001.

The defendants are Peter Roberts, 68, of Francis Street, Chaddesden, Derby, the former owner of Denby Poultry, and van driver Simon Haslam, 39, of Alder Road, Belper, Derbyshire.

Also accused are Brian William John Davies, 64, of Walmsley Road, Bury and Brian Paul Davies, 37, of Moor Road, Bury, and David Watson, 38, of Paxton Crescent, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire.

The court has been told that Roberts failed to appear at court and is being tried in his absence.