Don't think I'd find this particularly interesting except for it being in my neck of the woods.
And dodgy puns as well, which look a bit forced in what's supposed to be a serious newspaper - 'smoked out' and 'up in smoke' etc.
And the one about back of a fag packet calculations looks positively crow-barred in
Arbroath taxi driver had nearly 1 MILLION duty-dodging cigarettes in Dundee lock-up
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/co ... es-dundee/
Andrejs Nikitins also had more than 30kg of tobacco when his storage unit was raided.
A duty-dodging taxi driver from Arbroath was caught with an unlawful stash of nearly a million cigarettes and more than 30kg of tobacco in a Dundee storage unit.
Andrejs Nikitins criminal enterprise went up in smoke thanks to HMRC’s “Operation Asleep” to trace unpaid duty and VAT.
The Latvian’s gigantic haul was seized by authorities who worked out he was due the state more than £400,000 for the items in the container.
The court heard Nikitins was trying to make money on the side and was only due to earn around £4,500 from the illicit enterprise.
He has been warned he could be jailed when he is sentenced in August.
Customs investigation
Prosecutor Lee Corr told Forfar Sheriff Court HMRC had been running a project aimed at smoking out duty-dodging schemes across the country.
He said: “Operation Asleep was an investigation into fraudulent evasion of excise duty.
“The investigation concerns the importation, concealing and onward supply of non-UK duty-paid cigarettes and tobacco.”
On the morning of May 12 2022, a number of HMRC officers went to Keepsafe Storage at Castlecroft Business Park in Dundee and watched as Nikitins approached his unit.
Under writ of assistance – an anti-smuggling legal order that allows law enforcement officials to conduct searches without specific warrants – they were able to intervene.
Inside the unit, Nikitins had been stashing large cardboard boxes containing a mixture of brands of cigarettes and tobacco.
His key was seized and a full warrant was granted.
In all 890,640 cigarettes were seized, along with 30.5kg of hand-rolling tobacco.
It was calculated Nikitins was due to pay on the items £322,607.30 in duty and £81,881.32 in VAT.
Aided in the dock by an interpreter, Nikitins pled guilty to knowingly concealing, harbouring or keeping goods chargeable with duty, which had not been paid.
The 50-year-old admitted he did this with intent of defrauding HMRC of the duty payable, which was £404,488.62.
Mr Corr explained Nikitins’ phone was seized and text message evidence of deals dated back to November 16 2021.
Fractional profit after pandemic
Solicitor Doug McConnell said: “What’s happened here is effectively Mr Nikitins was trying to make a bit more money after Covid.
“He was a taxi driver, he got in tow with people beyond him.
“He tells me he was making around £1 or £2 per 200 cigarettes.”
Mr McConnell’s back-of-a-cigarette-packet calculation concluded his client would have earned £4,500 if everything in the lockup was sold.
He added: “I appreciate the value is extreme but of course Mr Nikitins wasn’t making anywhere near that.
“He was simply trying to make some money on the side.”
Image: DC Thomson/The Courier
