The people in Norfolk who got done where importing cheap stuff and re-labelling it as Norfolk (?) Honey...
NORFOLK HONEY SCAM
The jars of Norfolk honey, with their labels showing a colourful rustic scene and even the name of the producer, may have looked every inch the genuine article. But they contained an “adulterated” mix of cheaper honey from elsewhere, including Argentina and China, which was unwittingly sold by dozens of small businesses across the county, King's Lynn Crown Court heard today.
Prosecution counsel Miles Bennett said in a “deliberate and dishonest scam,” husband and wife William and Lynn Baker supplied customers with 17.7 tonnes of the falsely-named product between January 2001 and September 2003. Sales on 'honey runs' around greengrocers, butchers, post offices and other traders in Norfolk during that time had totalled nearly £70,000.
Their actions had only come to light when a beekeeper became suspicious and Norfolk County Council's trading standards department was alerted.
William Baker, 58, and Lynn Baker, 54, of Bury St Edmunds, have both pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of making a false description of food and 12 of obtaining property by deception.
Opening the prosecution case on 22 Nov, Mr Bennett said the charges related to transactions with customers on 12 days when the Bakers had visited Norfolk.
These represented a specimen of the deals made during any given day, while the 12 days singled out were specimens of the 'honey runs' taken in the investigation period.
Mr Bennett told the jury the counts involved the sale of honey to businesses in Old Buckenham, Cromer, Wells, Cawston, Dickleburgh, Bressingham, Hoveton, Ashwellthorpe, Ludham, Sheringham, Coltishall and Harleston.
“Unwittingly, all the people who sold this honey were themselves committing offences,” he said. “It put retailers at risk of prosecution and it undercut the genuine producers. The prosecution say these retailers, be it a post office or butcher's, would not have paid any money at all for this honey if the Bakers had indicated it had been mixed.”
Mr Bennett said trading standards officers began their inquiries after a beekeeper noticed the large volume of honey for sale which had apparently been produced by 'Smith' of Norwich - a producer he did not know.
During a search of the Bakers' home, the investigation team found “tub upon tub” of Argentinian honey, as well as buckets, boxes, jars and labels. Their “meticulous” records showed in 2001 they had sold 4.4 tonnes of ' Norfolk ' honey and bought 2.9 tonnes of Chinese honey and 3.5 tonnes of honey from elsewhere in England.
The following year they had sold 8.5 tonnes and bought 5.8 tonnes from Argentina and three tonnes of English honey, with a further five tonnes of Argentinian honey purchased in 2003, when they sold 4.8 tonnes of their own product. Entries in diaries referred to mixing and 'Chin' and 'Arg' honey.
Mr Bennett said tests on all but one sample of the honey seized revealed pollens which could not have originated in the UK - let alone Norfolk.
While it was accepted the Bakers had kept their own bees, they had none in Norfolk and could not have produced the amounts of honey in question. “In short, it was a scam and a quite deliberate and dishonest scam,” Mr Bennett said. “What it said on the label about it being Norfolk honey was simply false. “This was a cottage industry on a rather larger scale.”
