Last member of smuggling gang is sent to prison
THE last member of a gang has been jailed for his part in a ‘sophisticated criminal’ ring which smuggled illegal tobacco stashed inside fridges, microwaves and vacuum cleaners into the country.
The 11-strong gang evaded more than £12m in tax before they were caught out by a HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) operation.
David Hilton, 49, of Bolton, was the last member of the network to be sentenced. He was sentenced to three years in jail by a judge at Manchester Crown Court.
It follows the sentencing of ringleader Timothy Newman, 51, from Luxembourg, who was locked up for four years at the same court on May 24. The huge fraud was being masterminded from his tobacco outlet in Marmer, Luxembourg.
Teams watched the smuggling ring at work in a large warehouse where hollow fridges, microwaves and vacuum cleaners, with no working parts, were being used to hide tobacco before it was shipped to the UK. They were then emptied and sent back to be re-filled.
Nine other men from across the North West and Devon who co-ordinated the distribution, packaging and sales operation were also jailed.
They were Andrew Saxon, 38, of Bolton, who was jailed for 18 months on May 24.
Daryl Stringer, 50, of Bury, was sentenced to nine months on May 24.
Timothy Gibbs-Stringer, 55, of Wigan, was given a 26-month sentence to run concurrently with another on October 13 last year.
Kyle Langdon, 31, of Ivybridge, Devon, was jailed for two years on March 21.
Isaac Duxbury, 30, of Bolton, was jailed for 12 months on January 21, 2017.
Robbie Dunn, 23, of Wigan, was sentenced to 12 months in jail, suspended for 12 months, in October last year. He was also told to carry out 100 hours unpaid work.
Richard Birtwistle, 56, of Wigan, got eight months in jail, suspended for 12 months, also in October last year. He too was ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work.
Raymond Hughes, 58, of Aughton, Lancashire, one of the key figures on the English side of the channel, was previously jailed for six years on in December 2016 for his part in this £12m tobacco smuggling scam and a further six years for a second £10m cigarette smuggling fraud involving another criminal ring.
Andrew Carver-Trotter, 35, of Devon, was given one year in jail on March 22.
Tony Capon, assistant director of HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, said: “This was a sophisticated criminal network set up to smuggle, transport, store and sell illegal tobacco on a massive scale, purely to evade tax and line their own pockets. This gang took smuggling and tax evasion to the limits and made a serious assault on the UK public purse.”