UK seeks to extradite Irish egg producer in fraud case

UK authorities are looking to extradite an Irish egg packer for his alleged involvement in a multi-million pound egg fraud where cage eggs were falsely passed off to British consumers as free range or organic.

At the High Court earlier this week, Pearse Piggott, who runs the egg distribution firm Pearse Piggott and Sons, was remanded in custody with consent to bail.

In a warrant seeking his surrender, it is claimed that he was involved in a scheme where eggs were misrepresented as being free range and organic, re-numbered and labelled with incorrect supplier names.

Mr Piggott was granted bail on conditions including that he sign on with local police, surrender his passport and all travel documents, live at his home address, and provide a guarantee of €10,000 (£8532).