The court heard that the organised crime group migrated from smuggling tobacco to “missing trader” and fraud, operated through three Birmingham “front” companies, whose turnover exceeded £185m in just seven months. This led to a parallel, but separate, investigation being launched by Customs officers, who identified more than £200m of missing trader money being laundered through a firm of solicitors.

 

In the first trial, two of the defendants were found guilty of evading excise duty of £750,000 following the seizure of 2.4 tons of hand-rolling tobacco at Dover. In the second trial, a third pleaded guilty to cheating the public revenue of £5.17m in a missing trader fraud. Charges against both our clients were dismissed.

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Case represented by the Opus Law Team.