Butcher denies 261 tonne, $1.5m beef swindle from Yatala Pie Shop

A retired Queensland butcher accused of ripping off his friends, owners one of the state’s most famous pie shops, to the tune of $1.5 million has denied the claims.

A RETIRED Queensland butcher accused of ripping off his friends, owners one of the state’s most famous pie shops, has denied the claims he ripped off $1.5m worth of meat.

James “Jim” Cornell, 75, from Upper Mount Gravatt, denies acting dishonestly in his 30 year business relationship with the Yatala Pie Shop and argues “any undersupply” of meat “or overcharge” on meat orders “was a result of the ordering process” which was done by Yatala.

Yatala Pie Shop Pty Ltd, (YPS) which has sold pies from its store between Brisbane and the Gold Coast for decades, has sued Carina Meat Supply Pty Ltd (CMS) and Mr Cornell, in the Supreme Court in Brisbane alleging Mr Cornell deceitfully issued false invoices and falsely stated the weight of each fresh minced beef delivery for nearly three years.

YPS alleges he ripped them off to the tune of $1.5 million by undersupplying at least 261 tonnes of mince between January 2017 and October 15 last year.

At an earlier hearing Justice David Boddice noted the alleged undersupply appeared to have gone unnoticed by YPS from 2017 to 2019, court documents state.

In his defence filed in court last month, Mr Cornell and CMS submit that Yatala ordered 30kg tubs of meat called “cooks” or “tubs” rather than ordering in kilogram amounts, and delivery dockets were based on the number of tubs delivered.

Mr Cornell and CMS state in their defence that YPS did not request him to weigh the tubs of meat they ordered.

File picture: Susan Porter with parents Graham and Christine at their business the Yatala Pie Shop

“It was not (YPS) usual practice, through its staff, to order precise masses of product from Carina Meat Supply but rather to speak in terms of “Cooks” or “Tubs”.... containing enough meat for a single batch of pies,” Mr Cornell and CMS state in their defence.

Mr Cornell argues the delivery dockets were based on the number of tubs of meat delivered to YPS, and there was a “margin for error in each deliver docket” because the tubs were filled by volume rather than by weight.

He argued the weight of each tub varied “depending on the type of meat” and the fat, water or spice content of the meat.

But YPS argued in respose that each tub of minced beef was supposed to weigh 30kg when filled.

Mr Cornell was dumped as a supplier by YPS and accused of theft on October 14 last year.

The loss of the supply deal forced him to close his business, court documents say.

Until October Mr Cornell was trusted by Yatala Pie Shop’s owners, the Porter family, and had made the mince deliveries to Yatala’s bakery personally six days a week for decades.

Yatala Pie Shop’s lawyers submitted that it had determined that Carina’s delivery dockets were false based on calculations made by its accountant who compared the actual weight of meat deliveries on invoices with the number of pies sold, assuming the average weight of mince in a small pie is 207g, court documents say.

The case is due to return to court on April 24.