Chicken supplier who cleaned his premises with a pair of Y-FRONTS sold 30 tons of dirty meat to takeaways every week.

Kamran Ajaib, 27, operated Hamza Poultry Limited as makeshift butcher's

Bristol centre distributed meat to shops in Swindon, Cardiff and Swansea

Council officers raided premises after customer found metal wire in chicken

Open wheelie bins containing meat debris and bones found during search

No washbasins by work areas, knife steriliser or any safety management

Facing jail: Kamran Ajaib used Y-fronts to clean his premises, Hamza Poultry Limited in Bristol

A meat distributor supplied up to 30 tons of filthy chicken to takeaways every week from an unlicensed processing plant - which had no knife steriliser or hand-washing basin.

Kamran Ajaib, 27, used Y-front underpants to clean his premises, Hamza Poultry Limited in Bristol, which operated as a makeshift butcher’s, Bristol Crown Court heard yesterday.

The chicken was distributed to kebab shops and takeaway restaurants across the city - and even as far afield as Swindon, Cardiff and Swansea.

Council officials raided the plant after a customer found metal wire in their takeaway chicken. 

Ajaib’s premises had none of the necessary food hygiene approvals or licences to work with meat.

He pleaded guilty to 16 charges of failing to comply with food hygiene regulations between June 2010 and May 2011, but denied any knowledge of cutting chicken on the premises.

He told a previous hearing, held at the city’s magistrate’s court last year, that the chicken arrived in boxes from European Union-regulated factories and was left in those boxes.

But city council principal environmental health officer John Barrow said equipment used in meat preparation had been found during a raid on the premises, along with off-cuts of meat.

Mr Barrow said council officers and police found work tables, a saw often used to cut meat, knives, and a chainmail glove - used by butchers to prevent accidental injuries while chopping meat.

Open wheelie bins containing meat debris and bones were also discovered in the search. Council investigators estimated the unit processed ‘in excess of 20 to 30 tons a week’ of chicken.

Hygiene issue: The court heard that the pants were clean and came from a next door business, which had a surplus of old stock, and had been used as cleaning cloths at the chicken plant

Dirty gloves: The chicken was distributed to takeaway restaurants and kebab shops across Bristol and even as far afield as Swindon, Cardiff and Swansea

The court was also shown a photograph of a box of meat with a pair of underpants draped over it.

It heard that the pants were clean and came from a next door business, which had a surplus of old stock, and had been used as cleaning cloths at the chicken plant

Bristol City Council successfully applied for an order from magistrates to destroy more than four tons of chicken seized in a raid on the unit in May last year.

Mr Barrow said a member of the public complained to the council after finding a piece of metal wire in a chicken takeaway. A council probe into the takeaway’s suppliers led them to Hamza Poultry.

From mobile phones and receipts seized in the raid they realised the meat was being distributed across the South West to what were described in court as ‘KFC clones and kebab shops’.

Needing cleaning: Bristol City Council successfully applied for an order from magistrates to destroy more than four tons of chicken seized in a raid on the unit in May last year

Premises: Hamza Poultry Limited in Bristol, from which the chicken was distributed around the South West.

Asked what the premises needed to comply with safety standards, Mr Barrow said it lacked washbasins by work areas, a knife steriliser and any kind of safety management system.

'It doesn’t matter whether this meat is fit for human consumption or not. It is simply because they have not got the right licences in place'

Kate Burnham, Bristol City Council

Kate Burnham, who brought the application to destroy the meat on behalf of the council, said: ‘It doesn’t matter whether this meat is fit for human consumption or not. It is simply because they have not got the right licences in place.’

Ajaib told the earlier court hearing that he had stepped in at short notice to help his family, taking over the business from a brother who had been ‘locked up’ some months before the raid.

He said he had not known he needed a licence, and that the equipment he had on the site had come from a butcher who owed him money. Ajaib faces a possible jail term when sentenced next month.