Indian-origin man ordered to pay 1mn pounds
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 at 11:12 am
An Indian-origin smuggler, who was part of a gang that smuggled over 8 million counterfeit
cigarettes into the UK in 2003, has been ordered by a British court to pay 1 million pounds.
The Leicester Crown Court ordered Amarjit Singh Kullar, 40, one of the masterminds of the 10-member gang, to pay the money within six months or spend another three years in jail. Kullar was sentenced to two years in jail in 2006.
The crime, the court said, was “motivated by greed” and resulted in the loss of 1.2 million pounds to tax revenue.
Nick Burris, assistant chief investigation officer for Revenue and Customs, told the hearing, “This was a sophisticated, well-planned and large-scale smuggling operation which involved a large container of counterfeit cigarettes.
The cigarettes were smuggled from Kenya and then packaged as well-known brands and concealed inside 280 cartons labelled as tea. The container-load arrived at Felixstowe docks, on August 15, 2003, and was intercepted by Customs and Excise officers.
Reports from Leicester say that the consignment was kept under surveillance as an undercover officer, acting as a lorry driver, delivered the cigarettes five days later to a unit in Leicester.
Leicester-based Harendra Kumar Patel, 62, was the 10th gang member and is currently on remand. He will be sentenced on January 23 next year at the Leicester Crown Court.
Patel fled the country in a bid to escape jail for his role in the smuggling plot. He absconded to India and then North Carolina, America, but customs investigators worked with the US authorities to ensure his extradition back to the UK.
Eight other men, most of them from Leicester, were sentenced to a total of 12 years and nine months in 2006.
(With inputs from agencies)
( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)
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