A Court case against a Yorkshire pub licencee who carried on serving beef-on-the-bone after it was banned is expected to be dropped.

Chris Bowman, 37, former licencee of the Hopper Lane Hotel on the A59 at Blubberhouses, is facing four charges that he gave customers at his new public house, the Drovers Inn at Bishop Thornton near Harrogate, the chance to eat the outlawed meat.

However, following the lifting of the ban on meat such as T-bone steaks by the Government last month, North Yorkshire Trading Standards department, which had brought the prosecution, is expected to ask to withdraw the charges at York Crown Court tomorrow.

Mr Bowman said that he had had to suffer two years of inconvenience and hassle since the introduction of the ban and said his major grievance was that the thing had been a waste of public money.

North Yorkshire Trading Standards refused to confirm it was dropping the case but it is expected the charges will be withdrawn.

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