A SLAUGHTERHOUSE boss has become the first person to plead guilty to criminal charges connected to the horse meat scandal which rocked British supermarkets last year.

Peter Boddy, 65, admitted failing to comply with food traceability regulations which state the source of meat should be traceable from field to fork.

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Boddy, who runs a Todmorden slaughterhouse, admitted selling 50 horses for meat but failing to keep proper records to show who bought them.

There is no suggestion that buyers did not know they were purchasing horse meat.

Prosecutors said they did not know where the meat might have ended up.

Wearing a beige jacket and blue shirt, Boddy stood in the dock at London's Southwark Crown Court and pleaded guilty to the single count.

David Moss, the slaughterhouse's manager, denied forging an invoice concerning the number of horses sold in a transaction.

Both men are also charged with failing to comply with food traceability requirements for more than 17 horse carcasses between July 2012 and February 2013.

But they did not enter pleas and intend to apply for the charge to be dismissed.

The pair will stand trial next year, at a date to be confirmed, at Southwark Crown Court.

Slaughterhouse bosses Dafydd Raw-Rees and Colin Patterson, from Wales, also appeared in court on separate charges arising from the horse meat scandal.

They both denied 19 counts of selling goat falsely labelled as lamb shanks, lamb trim and mutton.

The pair, who worked at Tyne Parc, Llandre, in Dyfed, Wales, also deny failing to comply with food traceability requirements.

Their company, Farmbox Meats Limited, is believed to have gone into administration and stopped operating.

The pair will also stand trial at Southwark Crown Court at a date to be confirmed.

The two trials will be the first of their kind following last year's scandal.

The four were all released on bail.