A SCENE of filth and chaos met police officers, the Border Agency and health officials when they raided an illegal meat processing plant, a jury at Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Workers in dirty clothing were cutting up chicken carcases in a structurally unsuitable area with "numerous hygiene deficiencies."

Debris piled up outside the plant, at Unit 2, Iron Works Park, Bowling Back Lane, Bradford, could harbour rats, and wheelie bins of animal waste leaked blood-stained fluids.

Dennis Cryer, a veterinary meat hygiene adviser for the Food Standards Agency, told how he took part in the raid at 8.05am on September 3, 2013.

Mr Cryer, who has since retired, said Bradford Council, the police and Border Agency officials joined forces to inspect the meat cutting plant, which never applied for legal approval to operate.

Mr Cryer said workers were in a filthy room constructed from used insulating wall panels.

The offices and toilet were dirty and staff were standing on bloodstained cardboard packaging to insulate them from the concrete floor.

"The tables were dirty and overloaded, with mounds of chicken carcases. It was chaotic. Everything was intermingling and jumbled together," Mr Cryer said.

He was giving evidence for the prosecution in the trial of Majid Zaman, 34, who denies being the boss of the illegal processing plant.

Zaman, of Parkinson Lane, Halifax, has pleaded not guilty to a total of 12 counts of food hygiene and health and safety breaches at the plant, between August 1 and September 4, 2013.

Mr Cryer said cutting knives were left under the tables on the dirty floor and there was no wash basin or knife steriliser in the room.

The walk-in chiller had a dirty door and the fridge was pooling contaminated water.

Mr Cryer showed the jury a photograph of a worker at the plant in a filthy overall, with no hairnet and wearing inappropriate outdoor shoes.

He said there were "multiple contamination risks" and the lights were not shatter proof, leading to a potential glass hazard.

Earlier, witness Mohammed Sarwar, director of Adam and Baka Limited, told the court he leased the unit to Zaman, who runs Shariah Foods, in July 2013.

Mr Sarwar said Zaman told him it was for "storage or sub-letting."

There was no reference to him using it for his food business.

Mr Sarwar said he handed over the key to Zaman and he himself visited the unit in the first week of August and it was empty.

Shirley Gill, an environmental health officer with Bradford Council, said Zaman told her he sub-let the unit to a man called Karmat Sajid and had no involvement in what went on there.

Zaman said he turned up at the premises after he was phoned during the raid as a courtesy.

He had met Mr Sajid once and did not have a record of his home address.

Zaman said he did not employ the four men in the unit when it was raided.

The trial continues.