Beer scam firm may be prosecuted

9:33am Monday 25th February 2008

TRADING standards chiefs look set to launch an investigation into the scam which left drinkers across York and North Yorkshire supping beer beyond its best.

A county council spokeswoman said the authority's trading standards officers had a statutory duty to investigate any allegations of offences under food labelling legislation.

She said it was a criminal offence to change food label dates without the permission of the manufacturer.

The Press reported last week how Paul Tate-Smith, the managing director of Malton-based drinks wholesalers Tate-Smith Ltd, copied "best before" labels from kegs of beer and put the fake labels on other kegs which were actually beyond their best before dates.

Whistleblower Roy Cole, the firm's then commercial manager, told an employment tribunal that he warned Mr Tate-Smith to stop what he viewed as a fraudulent activity, saying it was unacceptable to dupe the firm's customers. However, Mr Tate-Smith instead stepped up the practice, even defrauding breweries with the same type of practice.

Eventually, Mr Cole submitted a report about the scam to the firm's chairman, Tim Tate-Smith, who is Paul's father, but Mr Cole was then told to clear his desk and leave the premises.

The tribunal decided he was unfairly dismissed by the company, which supplies pubs, clubs and hotels across York and North Yorkshire.

Tim Tate-Smith told the tribunal that when he had questioned his son, he had not denied carrying out re-labelling, and he had been reprimanded for what was a "totally inappropriate" practice. He said assurances had been obtained that it would never happen again.

He said no harm could have come to any member of the public, claiming that best before dates were largely arbitrary.

The council spokeswoman said that the case constituted a food quality matter rather than food safety.

A North Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said that it was not investigating as no complaint had been made. However, if a complaint was lodged, it would look into the matter.

Mr Cole said after the hearing that the case raised questions about the security of best before labelling on kegs from breweries across the country, saying it was too easy for wholesalers to take them off and copy them to make fake labels.

He said pub customers had to trust that beer from a keg was within its best before date, as they had no ability to see the label for themselves - unlike ones on most drinks and foodstuffs.

The British Beer and Pub Association said that as an environmentally friendly form of packaging lasting up to 30 years, kegs and casks were filled many hundreds of times over their lifetime, and so needed to be labelled.

"It is vital that all best before labels are adhered to throughout the supply chain to ensure the consumer gets a perfect pint of beer," said a spokesman.