Helim Miah

Introduction

Helim Miah is a Cardiff wholesale food businessman who was jailed for four years and eight months at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on July 24, 2025, for fraudulent trading and breaching insolvency law, after selling non-halal chicken as halal to restaurants and takeaways across south Wales. Miah, 46, of Cardiff, owned Universal Food Wholesale Limited and was found guilty after a trial earlier that year. His co-defendant Noaf Rahman, also 46 and from Cardiff, admitted the fraudulent trading offences before the trial started and received a 24-month suspended sentence. The case was brought following an investigation by Cardiff and the Vale Shared Regulatory Services into the pair’s wholesale operation.

Background Information

The sentencing followed an investigation by Cardiff and the Vale Shared Regulatory Services into Universal Foods (Wholesale) Ltd, based at Bessemer Close, Cardiff, which began in January 2019. That month the regulator seized 2,840kg of frozen meat from the pair’s warehouse in Cardiff. The business sold halal-labelled chicken to Indian takeaways and restaurants across south Wales, but investigations revealed that its suppliers often did not provide halal meat, and the pair continued to falsely advertise and sell the chicken as halal to their customers.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Miah pleaded not guilty and stood trial at Merthyr Crown Court in April 2025, where he was found guilty of 10 charges including running a food business dishonestly — falsely selling non-halal meat as halal, mislabelling expiry dates, ignoring hygiene rules, and failing to track food origins. On July 24, 2025, Judge Vanessa Francis sentenced him to 56 months, or four years and eight months, in prison for fraudulent trading and breaching insolvency law.

Prosecutor Alex Greenwood told Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court that over a five-year period, consumers of restaurants and takeaways “were in fact consuming non-halal products as a result of the criminality of these two defendants”. Some of the chicken had been bought in as halal meat, but correct hygiene procedures were not followed in the warehouse’s cutting room, which was also used to process non-halal meat, meaning that none of it could accurately be described as halal. There were long periods when the warehouse did not receive halal meat from wholesalers but continued to supply restaurants and takeaways who believed it was halal, and the court heard the customers believed they were dealing with a number of different companies. Greenwood said the companies set up by the pair enabled them to hide “behind a corporate veil” that was deliberately created to provide a “confusing trail”.

The investigation found the meat was not properly traceable, sell-by dates had been altered, and the chicken was not properly chilled when it was transported in dirty vans across south and west Wales. Regulators documented a string of hygiene failures: evidence that some poultry had been defrosted and refrozen, chicken two years past its sell-by date, no evidence of temperature records, evidence of pest activity, and unmarked meat transported in unclean vehicles that were not refrigerated or fit for purpose.

Sentencing Miah, Judge Francis said the pair had a “cavalier attitude” and were equally culpable, that the “harm in my view is extensive” and that there were “flagrant breaches over a significant period of time”. “This was a disaster waiting to happen and it is a matter of relief that it never did with the unsafe meat sent out of your premises,” she said, adding that the “societal impact” was “difficult to quantify”.

Public Reaction and Consequences

Cardiff Council cabinet member Cllr Norma Mackie, who is responsible for Shared Regulatory Services, said: “This story will be deeply concerning to our Muslim community. Eating halal is a requirement in the Islamic religion, and to take part in such a fraud shows the complete disregard these men had for the community.” She said the investigation revealed “extremely poor food hygiene conditions that could have caused serious harm to their customers”, and that the case raised important questions about the accuracy of halal claims, consumer awareness and the verification of halal certifications. The names of the businesses affected were not read in court because of the “highly sensitive” nature of the offences.

Current Status

Miah is serving a prison sentence of four years and eight months imposed at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on July 24, 2025, after he was found guilty at trial rather than admitting the offending. Rahman, who admitted the fraudulent trading offences before the trial began and pleaded guilty to multiple food hygiene offences, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work. Cardiff Council has directed consumers concerned about the traceability of wholesale food products to contact Shared Regulatory Services.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Miah’s record now pairs the ownership of a wholesale meat business with a conviction for fraudulent trading and breaching insolvency law, returned on 10 charges after he denied any involvement in the day-to-day processing of the operation. The trial verdict and the judge’s findings — unsafe meat sent from his premises, altered dates, untraceable origins and a corporate structure built to confuse — form a permanent public account of how the business was run. Cardiff Council cites the case in calling for food suppliers to be held accountable for the accuracy of their halal claims.

Sources

• Cardiff Council, “Food Wholesaler Jailed for Hygiene Offences and Selling Mislabelled Halal Chicken to South Wales Restaurants & Takeaways,” July 25, 2025 — source
• BBC News, “Man jailed for selling fake halal meat to restaurants,” July 24, 2025 — source
• WalesOnline, “Out-of-date chicken and meat that wasn’t what it seemed sold to restaurants across Wales,” July 25, 2025 — source