An illegal tobacco processing factory has been discovered at an industrial unit after two men were arrested at a motorway road check with half-a-tonne of processed tobacco in their van.
The two suspects, a 36-year-old man from Portsmouth and a 28-year-old man from Glasgow, were arrested following the police check carried out by Warwickshire Police at Warwick Services on the M40 on November 17.
The seizure led officers from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to an industrial estate in Bishop's Waltham, Hampshire, where they found a tonne of tobacco along with counterfeit tobacco pouches, duty labels and processing machinery.
The seized tobacco could have filled 30,000 standard 50g tobacco pouches with the duty evaded being about £300,000.
John Cooper, assistant director, criminal investigation, HMRC said: "Working closely with our partners at Warwickshire Police and the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, we have uncovered and closed down an illegal tobacco processing operation. Disrupting criminal trade is at the heart of our strategy to clampdown on the illicit tobacco market, which costs the UK around £2.1 billion a year in lost revenue.
"This is theft from the taxpayer and undermines legitimate traders. Anyone with information about the illegal production or sale of tobacco should contact the Customs Hotline on 0800 59 5000."
The two men were arrested on suspicion of being involved in the fraudulent evasion of excise duty and were bailed until May 2015.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article