Four in court for 'mis-selling salmon to Aldi'

Four people have appeared in court charged with fraud after salmon was allegedly mis-sold to Aldi.

Charles Andrew, Alexander Irvine, Alex McMorran and Dana Timsa are accused of describing salmon products they supplied to the supermarket chain as being RSPCA-assured and Scottish, when in fact they were from Norway.

The four were working for Bleiker's Smokehouse, based at the Leeming Bar industrial estate near Northallerton, North Yorkshire, when the alleged offences were committed in 2021 and 2022.

The hearing at Teesside Crown Court came after the Food Standards Agency's crime unit investigated their activities and they were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation.

Andrew, 59, of Kirkby Malzeard, near Ripon; Irvine, 62, from Grimsby; McMorran, 61, from Gretna in Scotland and Timsa, 36, of Morton-on-Swale, near Northallerton, were not asked to enter pleas and will return to court at a later date.

The Food Standards Agency's Neil Castle said the investigation had been "lengthy and complex".

The Bleiker's Smokehouse business entered administration in 2022, following the termination of a major supermarket contract.

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