A pig carcass covered in flies was just hours away from being sold to customers at an event in Maidstone, before a last-minute intervention by council officers.

Swindon Borough Council received a complaint on July 12 that animals were being butchered in a back garden.

One of the pig carcasses was found with its head still attached covered in plastic sheeting and lying in a paddling pool with some bags of ice.

WARNING: Graphic images

An officer then noticed another pig inside a gas-fired hog roast covered in flies and the council took swift court action to get the bodies removed.

Defendants Keshar Rana and Ashis Limbu said they bought them from a farm in Wales but were initially reluctant to provide further details.

No health marks or stamps were found on the carcasses confirming that they had not been slaughtered in an approved abattoir where they would have been subject to a post mortem check.

This is undertaken in all abattoirs to identify and reject any meat that is deemed unfit for people to eat.

As a result of routine inspection, organs of slaughtered pigs are rejected along with parts of the carcasses such as heads and legs due to conditions such as septicaemia, pleurisy, pericarditis, abscesses or the presence of parasites.

Without such checks having been carried out there is a very real risk of unfit meat entering the food chain.

Mr Rana and Mr Limbu told the council's Environmental Health officer that the cooked meat was meant to be sold for punters to eat at a ticketed event in Maidstone the following day.

This week, the court granted the town hall's request under Section 9 of the Food Safety Act 1990 for a declaration condemning two pig carcasses and for an order that they may be destroyed.

Mr Rana and Mr Limbu were ordered to pay the council costs of £1,610.

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