Arrests in duty case
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by Karen Miles • Customs investigators have arrested three members of a haulage company alleged to be involved in alcohol duty evasion— Customs says that more and more hauliers are becoming involved in this type of crime.
The latest arrests, of a driver and two other employees of a Midlands haulage company, happened last week when Customs officials waited for a delivery of alcohol at an industrial estate in Middleton, to the north of Manchester.
Six other people, including five at the Middleton warehouse and another person in Liverpool, were also arrested. All nine are on police bail until the beginning of April; no one has been charged.
Customs believes the gang was involved in the illegal evasion of alcohol duty worth around .E5m a year.
Alan Lee, senior investigating officer for Customs' National Investigation Service in the North-West, believes the gang was pretending to export a lorry load of alcohol but was actually planning to sell it in the UK without paying the required duty.
"Some hauliers are involved unwittingly but there is a group of hauliers in the UK who are willing to be paid in cash," says Lee. "There seems to be a growing belief that this is a way of making money in the 1990s."
The Middleton swoop followed an 1I-month undercover operation: Customs officers are watching a number of other hauliers.