2018-10-01_Reader_s_Digest_AUNZ

October• 2018 | 67

READER’S DIGEST

Stier Sentences

But are sentences tough enough? Of

therecord,thereisaresounding‘no’

from investigators. Take the case of

Dutch meat trader Willy Selten, who

wasarrestedin2013byGussowand

her colleagues. Behind factory gates,

Selten was deboning meat from all

over Europe, including 300,000 kilo-

grams of horsemeat that ended up in

supermarket burgers.

The ‘horsegate’ fraud affected Bel-

gium, France, Germany, Ireland, the

Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland

and the UK. Prosecutors demanded

five years. Selten was sentenced to

half that. Five years later, he is still

free pending an appeal.

“Law enforcement officers say sen-

tencesaretoolight,butacademiclit-

erature has consistently shown that

higher sanctions do not actually de-

terfraudsters,”saysGussow.

“Detection is a more important

deterrent, and the fact that on aver-

agewerecovermorethan€1million

[A$1.5 million] from each of the ma-

jor criminals we catch.

“Food fraud is not a victimless

crime. It is an attack on a basic human

righttoknowthatwhatweputinto

our bodies is safe,” she concludes.

transaction, from farm or ocean to
marketstallorsupermarketshelf,is
anopportunityforacriminal,”says
Elliott. “Tracking and tracing them
alliswherewecomein.”
Ta kei sh, one of E l l iot t ’s favou r ite
topics. Norwegian and Russian fac-
toryshipsremovetheheadsandguts
fromthefishtheycatch,whichare
thenfrozen,senttoChina,thawed,
filleted by cheap labour, re-frozen
intolargeblocksandshippedto
SouthKorea.“here,theyhavecold
stores the size of football stadiums
and the traders come to buy,” says
Elliott. “hey in turn sell on to other
traders,whosellthemtoretailers.
“Inajourneyofthousandsofmiles
there is ample opportunity for crimi-
nals to bulk upillets with salty water,
substitutespecies,orlabelbulkcatch
as line caught.
“Supermarketchainsputalotofef-
fort into securing their supply chains
anddotheirowntesting,butnothing
canbe100percentefective.
“I have been threatened because
of the work we do. Where organised
crime is in play, such as the Mafia’s
involvement in adulterated olive oil,
there is always a risk, because wher-
ever you look for fraud you will ind it.”

PAW AND ORDER

A sneaky squirrel crossed the thin blue line when swiping

a US policeman’s doughnut from under his nose. “That’s a

straight-up felony!” decried the cop. “Also, it’s rude.”FOXNEWS.COM