A FARMER was jailed for theft and possession of meat unfit for human consumption after a truck full of sheep carcasses was seized in Newport.

Julian Jones, 46, was investigated by Newport council’s environmental health and trading standards after Gwent Police stopped him and another man, Arthur Waring, 47, on the M4 in Newport in February last year.

Police believed the truck was overloaded but when they opened it they found black bin bags filled with around 70 sheep carcasses, heads, feet and offal, council officials said.

The meat appeared to have been illegally slaughtered and singed with a blow-torch to create a product known as a ‘smokie’ – scorched sheep meat with the skin left on.

Smokies are in demand in some Afro-Caribbean communities but they can be a potential health hazard to anyone who handles or eats them because of possible contamination of the animal's skin. It is believed the smokies were destined to be sold in London.

A meat expert confirmed it was unfit for human consumption and had been illegally slaughtered.

Jones and Waring previously pleaded guilty to using an overloaded truck in Newport and were fined but Jones, of Gwernogle, Ceredigion, was later brought to court in prosecutions by Newport and Ceredigion councils.

Jones was already under investigation by Ceredigion council and the meat fraud unit and pleaded guilty to six offences under food and animal hygiene regulations for running an illegal slaughterhouse, on September 4, 2009, On January 4, 2010, he admitted two offences of possessing food for sale, including sheep heads that were unfit for human consumption, following the seizure of meat in Newport. He was sentenced to a 15 months in prison at Swansea Crown Court on March 29.