Abattoir bosses say "justice has been served" after their conviction for refusing to comply with animal disease inspections was sensationally overturned.

Ajaz Najib, director of the M Najib & Sons slaughterhouse, has criticised Government agriculture bosses after his firm was cleared in the Court of Appeal.

The Foston company had been fined thousands for failing to hand over sheep brain samples as part of DEFRA's infectious disease screening programme.

But its conviction has now been quashed after an appeal judge ruled there had in fact never actually been any legal obligation to cooperate with the programme.

Mr Najib said: "How could DEFRA and the legal system have got this so wrong?

"We were treated like criminals when we knew we'd done nothing wrong - it was incredibly upsetting and stressful.

"Everyone in the community knew we had been convicted of a crime, even my children's school teachers.

"Now I'm just really happy justice has been served and the conviction has been quashed.

"It's restored our faith in the legal system, but at a cost of about £100,000 in legal fees and lost time.

"We also had to scale down production and let 15 to 20 people go as we were fearing a big fine.

"And it could have all been solved had DEFRA compromised with us, rather than wasting so much court time.

"Our reputation had taken a huge blow and hopefully it can now begin to be restored."

The company's successful appeal came despite the fact the firm, which slaughters around 200,000 sheep a year, pleaded guilty at its initial trial.

Mr Najib said: "For a year, our lawyers tried to explain to the court that there was no law in place (to enforce compliance with DEFRA's programme).

"When the judge wouldn't accept our argument, the QC then advised us to plead guilty and try to get the conviction overturned on appeal."

M Najib & Sons abattoir in Foston. Director Ajaz Najib.

The Church Broughton Lane abattoir was convicted of "failing to give an inspector the assistance that he required in order to take samples" between September 25, 2014 and January 29, 2016.

In May 2017, the company was fined £7,000 and ordered to pay legal fees totalling £5,770.75.

The conviction was quashed in the Court of Appeal in April this year by Lord Justice Leggatt.

His judgement reads: "The refusal of the appellant company to assist DEFRA to comply with the UK's obligation obligations under European law in respect of TSE monitoring in sheep may be lamented.

"But we are satisfied that the company had no legal obligation to cooperate and that its failure to do so did not constitute a criminal offence.

"Accordingly, for the reasons given, the appeal is allowed and the company's conviction will be quashed."

A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which brought the case on behalf of DEFRA, said: "We note the decision of the Court of Appeal and will consider its implications for future prosecutions."

Why did M Najib & Sons stop complying with DEFRA's programme?

These sheep seemed well equipped for the weather!
DEFRA monitor sheep carcasses for disease

The DEFRA (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) monitoring programme, which is mandatory under EU rules, involves taking brain tissue samples from animals slaughtered at abattoirs.

The samples are checked for for infectious nervous system diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs).

TSEs in cattle include BSE - or "mad cow disease" - and strains in sheep can include a condition called scrapie.

Screening is carried out at the Government's expense and requires cooperating abattoirs to retain carcasses from which brain samples have been taken pending the results.

This is generally thought to take 24 hours but Mr Najib told the Burton Mail his results were taking "two days" to be returned.

He said: "Initially, we'd get test results back very quickly, so could use the carcases and sell the meat while it was fresh.

"But DEFRA stopped doing night testing to save money, so it was taking two days to get the results back.

"Being a halal meat abattoir, the vast majority of our meat goes out fresh and we don't sell that much chilled meat.

"And the result of the tests taking two days meant the carcasses associated with the brain samples were no longer fresh and were losing a lot of weight and, subsequently, value.

"It was costing us a lot of money - about £10 to £15 per carcass - and DEFRA didn't even entertain the possibility of giving us any compensation.

"We had to throw quite a lot of stuff away.

"We asked them to either ensure the samples were assessed on time or pay for the costs we incurred, but they refused.

"Instead, when we said we would no longer by complying, they took us to court."

Mr Najib does not believe TSEs are currently a "genuine public health risk".

He said: "When there was the BSE crisis, every single abattoir in the country was routinely tested, but that's not the case here.

"Only 15 of more than 200 abattoirs in the country were selected to be involved.

"If it was a serious and credible risk, why wasn't the testing more widespread?"

What does DEFRA have to say?

A DEFRA spokesman said: "We’re disappointed this one abattoir refused to cooperate with the survey – it’s a key way we monitor the national sheep flock for signs of scrapie and demonstrate the low level of the disease in the UK.

"New domestic regulations coming into force this summer will require all abattoirs to comply with any requests from inspectors to take samples for animal disease control purposes."