A STUDLEY butcher has been named and shamed in a BBC show following the work of enforcement officers and the vital work they do.

Meat trader Simon Drust, formally of The Meat Shack, was featured in the BBC show Defenders UK.

It told how in October 2018 Trading Standards brought a case against Drust, who built his business up saying he was selling 100 per cent British meat products.

In fact he was selling meat from countries thousands of miles away.

The team began investigating in 2015 after a complaint from a customer about The Meat Shack in Studley

The woman had bought some chicken with a label claiming it was best of British - but it wasn't.

She noticed the label peeled up and and there was another one saying the chicken had come from the Netherlands

Investigators looked at The Meat Shack's publicity online and in some local newspapers.

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Undercover officers then went to the shop, at Spernal Garden Centre on Alcester Road, posing as customers and brought joints of meat back to the Trading Standards' lab where they were stored as evidence in secure freezers.

They discovered foreign meat was being re-packaged and re-branded with Union Jack flags and best of British labels.

In October 2018 Drust and his Meat Shack business were brought to court to answer charges of fraud and fraudulent trading.

In court Drust and the business pleaded guilty to fraud.

In April 2019 Drust was jailed for two years nine months and the company was fined more than £350,000.

Investigators on the BBC show called it a very serious fraud and described it as a business "clearly out to mislead consumers".

The Trading Standards team, from Warwickshire, along with environmental health officers, were praised for their good work which was said to be largely overlooked by the public.

People can watch the show on the BBC's iplayer.