Balti blunder costs £5,500

Selling cheap cuts of beef as a lamb balti cost the Oldham owner of a Salford takeaway more than £5,500 in fines and costs.

Trading Standards officers caught Durud Miah (42), of Middlesex Walk, falsely advertising and selling the curry at Indian Flava, premises he owns on Eccles New Road.

They visited Miah’s takeaway and ordered a lamb balti from the menu on June 5 last year.

When scientists ran tests they found it contained the DNA of a cow.

Miah was warned he was being investigated and told about the test results.

But when another sample was taken in August, tests revealed the curry contained only beef and no lamb.

Miah was asked to produce receipts from the wholesaler in Oldham where he bought the meat, which showed two purchases of beef.

Miah said he sent a member of staff to buy the lamb and they came back with beef — even though there was not a beef dish on the menu.

Miah pleaded guilty to two charges of publishing an advert which falsely described a lamb balti when it contained beef, and two further charges for selling the lamb balti containing beef ‘to the prejudice of the purchaser’.

He said: “Whatever I did was wrong. It was a mistake on my part. I am almost bankrupt now and am in lots of debt.”

He was fined £4,000 for all four offences plus £1,420 in costs and a further £150 victim surcharge.

Speaking after the case, Councillor Gena Merrett, from Salford Council, said: “Mr Miah cooked up a recipe for disaster by trying to pass beef off as lamb, blaming his staff and failing to produce paperwork.

“He now has a bill for what surely must be the most expensive curry in the world.”

Indian Flava has since shut down.