The boss of a slaughterhouse in Calderdale who sold horse carcasses to “Italian restaurants” and scores more without any record of where they were being sent, is facing jail.

Peter Boddy, 65, sold 55 horses without keeping a note of the purchaser, and accepted a further 17 into his business without documenting the supplier.

He admitted one count of failing to abide by EU meat traceability regulations and pleaded guilty to failing to comply with food traceability regulations which state the source of meat should be traceable from pasture to plate.

He will be sentenced later alongside the manager of the slaughterhouse in Todmorden, David Moss, who admitted forging an invoice concerning the number of horses sold in a transaction on February 12 2013.

Prosecutor Adam Payter told London’s Southwark Crown Court the controversy had “undermined confidence in the meat industry”.

He explained that it was a requirement for slaughterhouses to keep a record of where they bought their meat, and also of where they sold it.

“The purpose of that is so that members of the public who buy food products can know where their food has come from, and to ensure that it can be recalled if there are any issues with the safety of the food,” Mr Payter said.

“The prosecution say that in relation to horses that were slaughtered on the site, there were Food Standards Agency records for those; in relation to other horses that were not in the FSA records - there were not proper records for those horses. It can’t be said where they were slaughtered, when they were slaughtered, whether it was on site - but horsemeat passed through Peter Boddy’s slaughterhouse without being properly documented.”

He added that although the prosecution could not say whether the meat had ended up in the human food chain, “there would be no cause to cover up the provenance or destination of horsemeat unless there was something underlying wrong with that horsemeat.”

Boddy of East Hey Head Farm, Todmorden, and Moss of Higher Moss, both in West Yorkshire, will be sentenced later.