Terror witness escapes jail

Red diesel is produced for agricultural vehicles only

A key witness in a Real IRA trial has not been jailed for his part in a £2.9m fuel tax scam that netted huge profits to fund terrorism.

Alan Aggett, 42, from Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, was arrested along with three other men in November 2001 following a customs investigation into tax evasion on diesel.

The operation, carried out at Manor House Farm, West Ardsley, near Leeds, also led to the identification of two men involved in a Real IRA terrorist campaign in Britain during the same year.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Aggett, Robert Surtees, 46, from Newton Aycliffe, County Durham and Peter Brown, 53, from Hartlepool, Cleveland, pleaded guilty to fraudulently evading excise duty on hydrocarbon fuels at earlier hearings.

Aggett, who was paid £500-a-week to wash the diesel, was given a 15-month suspended sentence with a £8,000 confiscation order.

Surtees and Brown were also jailed while another man, Martin Simpson, from Butterknowle, County Durham, had the charge against him left on file after he agreed to pay £15,000 to the Treasury.

The assistance you rendered to the police was no ordinary assistance - you implicated Real IRA bombers and what you had to say was critical in bringing them to justice. Judge Shaun Spencer

All four men were accused of taking part in a Real IRA-controlled scheme that saw red diesel "washed" and sold on as genuine fuel.

Red diesel is a duty-free marked fuel which is only supposed to be used for agricultural vehicles.

Roger Birch, prosecuting, said Customs and Excise had lost £2.9m as a result of the scheme, which had processed 4.4m litres of fuel.

Their investigation led to the discovery of a Real IRA terrorist cell at neighbouring Hill Top Farm.

Aggett gave evidence at the resulting trial of five men at the Old Bailey over their part in bombings in London and Birmingham.

Suspended sentence

Edward Bindloss, defending, said: "He [Aggett] said when he saw on television that bombs were being made at Hill Top Farm he was horrified and felt it was his duty to help the police.

"He said there was a difference between petty crime and terrorist bombing."

Judge Shaun Spencer said: "The assistance you rendered to the police was no ordinary assistance. You implicated Real IRA bombers and what you had to say was critical in bringing them to justice.

"I must recognise the help you gave to the authorities which will justify me in suspending your prison sentence.

"I accept it was not yourselves who got the good pickings. It is clear that the purpose of the fraud was to finance the aims of Irish Republican terrorism as represented by the Real IRA."

Surtees was given a two-year jail sentence and a confiscation order of £13,110.

Brown, who drove the red diesel in modified tipper trucks from County Durham to West Yorkshire was jailed for nine months and handed a confiscation order of £3,000.