Haulier cleared of conspiracy
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O A haulage boss and one of his drivers have been cleared of a conspiracy charge at Stafford Crown Court. Mark Somerville, owner of Landmark Haulage of Hamittonsbawn, and truck driver Robert Boyle of Portadown, both of County Armagh. had both pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to evade the excise duty on alcohol.
The charges against them were found not proved.
Jagit Singh Tiwana of Sandwell Valley, West Bromwich was sent to prison for 21 months after admitting conspiracy to evade the excise duty on alcohol. He was said to be an illegal immigrant.
Michael Elsom, prosecuting, said Tiwana was part of a gang that diverted loads of vodka and whisky being moved under a suspended duty scheme.
He was arrested after Customs officers followed a lorry driven by Robert Doyle on the M6 from a bonded warehouse in Gloucester.
The lorry should have been destined for Belgium but instead turned on to the motorway and was met by Tiwana at the Hilton Park service station at Cannock, Staffs last November.
Customs officers found 1,510 cases of vodka in the vehicle. Elsom said documents were forged with the load.
-It was a diversion of spirits from warehouses abroad and in this country which never reached their destination," said Elsom. "A number of people put their heads together and decided to interfere with consignments of spirits between bonded warehouses."
Somerville said he had no idea of what was going on. Doyle said he had been told, as an employee, to drive a load to a certain point, which in all innocence he had done.