“Consumers bought free-range and organic eggs from Britain’s biggest supermarkets, believing they were the best quality and that hens enjoyed the highest of standards. But, for an 18-month period from June 2004, over 100 million of these supposedly ‘premium’ eggs on sale in supermarkets, such as Tesco and Sainsbury, and corner shops were from chickens reared in battery cages. The scale of the racket was described at Worcester Crown Court today when Keith Owen, mastermind of the scam, former managing director of Heart of England Eggs of Bromsgrove, was jailed for three years and ordered to pay £3 million in confiscation of his assets after admitting three charges of false accounting.”
The Times, 11th March 2010
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
