Businessmen must repay £170,000 after counterfeit cigarette operation

FOUR West Midlands businessmen who were convicted of running a £60,000 tobacco counterfeiting plant and money laundering operation have been ordered to pay back £170,000 of their criminal profits or face time behind bars.

James Anderson, 58, from Solihull, Phillip O’Brien, 54, from Stratford-upon-Avon and Nicholas Edmunds, 54, from Walsall, ran a tobacco factory from adjoining industrial units they rented in Wythall.

Anderson was handed a suspended two-year sentence last June, and both O’Brien and Edmunds were both handed suspended nine-month sentences along with 80 hours of unpaid work.

During a raid HM Revenue in January 2013, and Customs (HMRC) investigators seized more than 1.3 tonnes of raw leaf, shredded and hand rolling tobaccos, as well as equipment to shred, spray and package the counterfeit tobacco.

A fourth man, Bradley Bailey, 29, laundered the cash for the gang and was sentenced to a Community Order for 15 months with supervision and 60 hours’ unpaid work.

Peter McDermott, assistant director at HMRC Fraud Investigation Services said: “Crime really doesn’t pay. We are determined to recover stolen tax from criminals who think they can steal from the public purse and get away with it.

“This confiscation order shows that we don’t stop once someone has been jailed, but our actions continue until we have deprived criminals of their illegal profits. This recovered cash will be directed to where it should have been – toward funding vital public services. Disrupting criminal trade is at the heart of our strategy to clampdown on the illicit tobacco market, which costs the UK around £2.4billion a year. We encourage anyone with information about the illegal sale of tobacco or alcohol to contact the Fraud Hotline on 0800 788 887.”

At a confiscation hearing at Birmingham Crown Court Anderson, of Forshaw Heath Lane, Earlswood, Solihull, was ordered to pay back £150,000 or face 18 months in prison.

O’Brien, of Aston Cantlow Road, Wilmcote, Stratford-upon-Avon, has to pay back £20,178 or face eight months in prison and Edmunds, of Pomeroy Road, Pheasey, Walsall, has to pay back £2,367 or face two months behind bars. All three men have three months to pay or face prison.

Bailey, of Crabmill Close, Knowle, Solihull, was ordered to repay a nominal £1 at a hearing on 20 January 2017.