‘Furniture’ tobacco smuggler gets 8 years
VILLAIN TRACKED DOWN TO PRAGUE AFTER FLEEING FOLLOWING £17m TAX RIP-OFF
A MAN who smuggled raw tobacco into the country disguised as furniture was tracked down to a Prague hideout where he fled during a £17m tax rip-off.
Robert Zduniak, 43, from Bury, fled to the Czech Republic during his trial for his part in the smuggling scheme.
He and at least two others operated out of illegal factories in Bury, Blackburn and Preston, as well as in Essex, where they would produce the illicit substance.
The group, who were jailed for 16 years, smuggled the tobacco into the UK for more than 15 months, deliberately mislabelling it as furniture.
At a Manchester Crown Court trial, during which Zduniak was found guilty of conspiracy to cheat HMRC, a jury heard he had been involved in the importation, transporting and processing of the raw tobacco.
HMRC investigations led to tobacco being seized in Preston in 2013, followed by more seizures of tobacco and manufacturing equipment the following year in Bury, Greater Manchester; Blackburn, Lancashire, and Halsted, Essex.
A year later, HMRC raided a farm in Essex, as well as four premises near Bury and another in Blackburn. Officers seized around three tonnes of raw tobacco that was being converted into counterfeit hand-rolling tobacco, £15,000 in cash, chemicals, counterfeit packaging and tobacco packing machinery, the court heard.
In total, investigators found the gang smuggled more than 100 tonnes of raw tobacco into the UK from the Czech Republic over 15 months by deliberately mislabelling it as furniture.
If converted into counterfeit handrolling tobacco, the goods would have been worth £17m in tax evaded, the HMRC said.
After the trial, HMRC officers found Zduniak, who had addresses in Bury and Blackburn, in the Czech Republic and he was extradited three days after Christmas. Now he faces eight years behind bars for his involvement in a £17m tax fraud.
Following a hearing last week, where Zduniak’s sentence was confirmed, assistant director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, Tony Capon, said: “A New Year and a new start for Zduniak behind bars. He’ll have plenty of time to carefully consider any resolutions he wants to make.”
Zduniak’s co-conspirators, Hubert Jankowski, 39, of Gigg Lane, Bury, and Lukasz Pawelec, 33, were each jailed for four years in May, 2017.