A Bradford meat trader has been jailed for his role in a national £300,000 fraud that ripped off food wholesalers.

Yakub Yusuf, 58, was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment at Leeds Crown Court today for the sophisticated scam.

The court heard he used companies called Wembley Meat and Ossett Abattoir as fronts for the fraud that stretched from 2007 into 2008.

Prosecutor Richard Wright said Yusuf used cheque books on closed bank accounts and gave false identification to fool companies.

Food operators that lost money in the fraud included meat, fish and poultry wholesalers across the UK.

Mr Wright said Yusuf was responsible for losses of around £145,000.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud, along with Abdul Yaqoob, 35, of Broomer Street, Dewsbury, who was sentenced to a 12-month community order.

A third defendant Zulfiqar Alam, 43, of Ashford, Middlesex, who was convicted after a trial, was jailed for three years.

The court heard that Yusuf of Warley Drive, Bradford, was imprisoned for four-and-a-half years in 2009 for meat hygiene offences.

Mr Wright said he was investigated by the council at the same time as he was committing the fraud.

He had recently been freed from prison on licence.

Yusuf’s barrister John King said he was arrested on March 6, 2008 for both sets of offences and had already served "a fairly hefty sentence".

Had Yusuf been jailed for the meet hygiene and fraud offences at the same time he would have got six years.