Fraud Acquittal

Stan Reiz successfully defended DS against a charge of being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of excise duty on alcohol. DS was one of five defendants accused of evading approximately £3.4 million of excise duty over a 7 month period in 2016. Substantial quantities of alcohol were smuggled into the UK from mainland Europe through a sophisticated alcohol diversion operation involving lorries carrying “mirror loads”. The scheme circumvented HMRC’s duty suspension arrangement for the importation of alcoholic products and allowed those responsible to sell millions of pounds of duty evaded alcohol to retail businesses.

Following a 5 week trial at the Chelmsford Crown Court, DS and one other were acquitted by the jury. Three other defendants have been convicted and are to be sentenced at a later date.