Three brothers pleaded guilty to offences relating to the illegal slaughter of sheep.

Animal Health Officers from Gloucestershire County Council Trading Standards Service visited Moor Oak Farm, Dymock, on December 8 2008, during the festival of Eid, where they seized 59 sheep heads and 67 fleeces.

They found that a poultry shed on the farm was being used to slaughter sheep for human consumption.

The sheep were not pre-stunned and were slaughtered to produce Halal meat, which was then supplied into the human food chain without being inspected by a vet.

At Cheltenham Magistrates, Yusuf Jaffer, 31 of Ryecroft Street, Gloucester, pleaded guilty to offences of slaughtering animals without pre-stunning at a place other than a slaughter house, failing in a duty of care under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, failing to stain ‘specified risk material’ to identify it as not being for consumption, and failing to return a sheep movement licence to the local authority.

Yusuf’s brothers Hanif Jaffer, 32, of Upton Street, Gloucester and Moosa Jaffer, 29, of Ryecroft Street, Gloucester, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting in the slaughter of animals without pre-stunning.

The court heard the conditions under which the animals were found were unhygienic and the dim lighting and lack of suitable equipment to restrain the sheep meant that their welfare may have been compromised.

Officers found only one dressed carcass and some boxes of meat on the site, the rest having gone out to the community.

The chairman of the bench, in passing sentence, accepted that Hanif and Moosa were responding to a request for help from their brother but found they were not entirely ignorant of the fact that what was occurring was illegal, due to their experience of working in abattoirs.

Yusuf was sentenced to 200 hours unpaid work in the community and ordered to pay a contribution of £400 towards costs.

Hanif and Moosa were fined £120 each and were each ordered to pay a £100 contribution towards costs.

Eddie Coventry, Head of Trading Standards, said: “There are legitimate abattoirs that provide Halal meat.

“These three brothers were well aware of the rules and regulations regarding the slaughter of animals for human consumption and put the farming industry at risk due to the lack of traceability of the sheep as well as putting the community, who they supplied, at risk due to the unhygienic conditions and the lack of veterinary inspection of the carcasses.”