Selten (45) was found guilty of forging invoices and labels to trade meat. He was arrested in May 2013 for selling 300 tonnes of horse meat as beef, RTÉ reports.

Prosecutors suspected the trader had a major role in the scandal, which emerged in January 2013. However, he told Dutch news agency ANP that he expected to be acquitted and maintained that he had no knowledge of the deals.

In March, a slaughterhouse boss in the UK became the first person to be convicted in relation to the horsemeat scandal. Peter Boddy, who runs a slaughterhouse in West Yorkshire, was fined £8,000 (€10,877) for not complying with EU meat traceability regulations.

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He sold 55 carcasses without keeping records of where they were going. A total of 17 animals entered his business without documentation.