Arrests amid major fuel smuggling probe

EIGHT men have been arrested and 55,000 litres of fuel seized after customs officers raided premises in Merseyside and Manchester.
 
HMRC said the swoops were made as part of an ongoing investigation into an alleged fuel smuggling fraud worth an estimated £3m in evaded tax.

Storage tanks,  a quantity of cash, computers, business records, a lorry and a trailer were seized during the operation.

One business and four domestic addresses in Knowsley, Liverpool, Manchester and St Helen were searched.  Simultaneously, in Northern Ireland HMRC and officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland carried out searches of six domestic addresses in counties Antrim, Armagh and Down.

Three men from Merseyside, one from Manchester and four from Northern Ireland have been bailed as investigations continue.
 
Sandra Smith, assistant director, fraud investigation service at HMRC, said: “Fuel fraud costs millions of pounds in lost duty every year, meaning the public lose out on vital funds for essential services, and it creates an uneven playing field for honest businesses.”

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