Man and woman guilty of £1.7m tax evasion in illegal tobacco case

Alan Nesbeth, aged 53, of Glyn Avenue, Moxley, Bilston, was convicted of conspiring or being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of duty, when he appeared before Wolverhampton Crown Court today.

Renna Graham, aged 63, of Bradley Lane, Bilston, was convicted of the same charge, and also of conspiring with others to evade duty between July 2011 and January 2013. They are due to be sentenced in September.

A third man, Shabab Ali, of Frederick Road, Aston, Birmingham, was cleared of being involved in the fraudulent evasion of duty in May 2013. All three had denied the charges.

Jian Ning Yang, of Linwood Road, Dudley, had admitted conspiring to evade duty at a separate hearing.

Judge Michael Dudley gave no indication of the sentence Graham and Nesbeth faced, and granted them bail on condition they co-operated with the probation service for the preparation of reports.

The jury reached unanimous verdicts after being told that 9.4 tons of hand rolling tobacco was seized by HM Revenue and Customs officers from vans and a container at Alligator Self Storage in Wednesbury during a raid in 2013.

The court had also heard that thousands of pounds in cash was stashed away, hidden in a freezer.

Mr Nicholas Smith, prosecuting, said further investigations led officers to believe that Nesbeth had been involved in securing the storage unit almost a fortnight before.

The court was told that Revenue and Customs officers carried out an earlier raid in February 2012 where 303.8kg of tobacco and 8,000 illegal cigarettes - evading £47,846.84 in duty -were found at an address in Handsworth. The court heard that the tobacco had been again disguised as Chinese tea.

Investigations led officers to the home of Yang in Linwood Road, Dudley, where tobacco was found along with Amber Leaf pouches and evidence of payments to storage and courier companies.

The court was also told that in August 2012 officers watched Nesbeth meet another man outside Bilston Post Office, in Hall Street, and show him tobacco before money was exchanged. Mr Smith said he was seen a short time later with Renna Graham being driven in a Ford Mondeo by Yang, before Graham and Nesbeth got out to collect parcels from the post office.

The court was told they were stopped attempting to put boxes in the car and a search of the car boot found 10,800 illegal cigarettes. They were arrested and their homes searched.

Mr Smith said thousands of pounds worth of cash was found at Yang's address, including £9,000 concealed in a freezer, together with 11,600 foreign cigarettes and 12kg (26.5 lbs) of hand rolled tobacco.

A total of 2,680 American Legend cigarettes, which are not sold in this country, were said to be found at Graham's home.