Customs swoop on green-diesel fleet by David Craik • A
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director and a driver from a Liverpool haulage firm have been arrested and charged with smuggling more than 25,000 litres of un-taxed diesel into the UK from the Republic of Ireland.
Forty Customs officers from the National Investigation Service and North West Collection Fraud District followed one of the unnamed firm's tankers on arrival from the Belfast-to-Liverpool ferry last Tuesday morning in an operation called Starched.
The tanker was declared as carrying candle wax.
However, samples drawn from its contents by the Road Fuel Testing Unit when it was seized in the firm's yard revealed that all 25,000 litres were dyed green.
The Irish dye their untaxed fuel green; it is the equivalent of the UK's red diesel.
As well as the tanker, up to 20 of the firm's other CVs were found to be fuelled with green diesel and were seized. The revenue involved was £400,000.
Senior Investigation Officer Peter Hollier says the operation was "the first of its kind on the mainland UK". The firm will be in court on 21 July.
However, a Liverpool-based haulier claims that this activity has been "happening for years". He says that only two weeks ago he was offered diesel at 23p/lit from an Irish firm he refuses to name.