Men jailed over fuel laundering

Three men have been jailed for their part in a fuel-laundering scam which resulted in the evasion of more than £2m in excise duty and VAT.

Damian Mulholland, from County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, was given six years and Brian Patrick O'Doherty, of Coventry, five years.

Jagdevpal Jandu Singh, from Wolverhampton, was jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Oil from a licensed distributor was laundered or mixed and then sold.

Agricultural machinery

The fraud involved more than 4m litres of fuel in eight months.

An undercover operation by officers from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) showed how the rebated oil - red diesel and kerosene - collected from a distributor was laundered or mixed.

It was then sold as duty paid road diesel and ultra-low sulphur diesel.

The gang was also smuggling, laundering and mixing rebated oil - green diesel - from the Republic of Ireland.

Red diesel is marked gas oil or a rebated fuel for use in agricultural machinery and not in road vehicles.

Green diesel is the Republic of Ireland's equivalent of the UK's red diesel.

Bogus company

A mixing plant was dismantled and kerosene and green diesel were seized at a site in the area of Lizard Lane, Tong Forge, near Telford, Shropshire.

A fully-operating oils laundering plant was dismantled and more than 34,000 litres of finished product were seized at a warehouse at Measham, Swadlincote, Derbyshire.

Fuel was sold using a bogus company called Mac Oil based in Manchester.

Mulholland, from Beaver Crescent, Maghera; O'Doherty, from Evenlode Crescent, Coventry, and Singh, from Marsh Lane, Wolverhampton, were jailed under the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979.

They were jailed at Coventry Crown Court on Wednesday, HMRC reported.