No-one jailed for fuel smuggling 'in decade'

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31 January 2013 Last updated at 09:10

No-one jailed for fuel smuggling 'in decade'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-21272152
Fuel laundering Custom officers said the shed had been built with laundering diesel as its purpose

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Underground fuel plant dismantled
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-21268554

No-one has gone to jail for fuel smuggling in Northern Ireland in the last decade, a senior customs officer has said.

John Whiting, assistant director of criminal investigation for HMRC, was speaking after a diesel laundering plant was found in County Armagh.

He said that time behind bars would be a "disincentive" to fuel smugglers.

"That is an issue we have raised with the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee as a matter of concern," he said.

"There are a number of discussions taking place, we are aware that the Lord Chief Justice has prepared some sentencing guidelines, we are also engaged with the Department of Justice in a review of comparative sentencing with England and Wales compared to Northern Ireland.

At the scene Francis Gorman BBC NI

The building was big enough to contain three petrol tankers. As you stood looking in on the left there was a large tank, big enough to hold 50,000 litres of either green or red diesel. It was secured to a long trailer. On the right hand side was a petrol or diesel tanker, the kind you would see out on the road.

In between the tank and the tanker there were two manholes. It seems that underneath the shed were large tanks that stored the laundered diesel. So it was treated in the tank on the left, stored underground then pumped up into the tanker on the right.

"One of the things that we have been concerned about - that we have no right of appeal in respect of unduly lenient sentences - the Department of Justice is consulting about a new piece of legislation on that issue. "They are being sentenced, but with suspended sentences. They are getting imprisonment but it is suspended.

"In England and Wales the sentence is actually custodial, people are going to jail, clearly there is a disincentive to the crime if you are going to have your liberty removed and that disincentive has not existed in Northern Ireland."

In a raid on Wednesday, officers removed 14 tonnes of toxic waste from an isolated shed near the village of Jonesborough in south Armagh.

They discovered large underground tanks being used to launder green diesel. Mr Whiting said that it was one of the most sophisticated plants ever found in Northern Ireland and had now been dismantled. He said the plant was capable of producing 25m litres of illicit fuel, evading over £18m in taxes and duty a year.

"The level of sophistication was astounding," he said. "It appears to us that the premises had been built solely for the purposes of laundering fuel. "We believe that the underground tanks were installed at the time it was built."

[Bill Sticker]

The criminals involved in this are Republican terrorists. So as not to upset the "peace process" the authorities turn a blind eye to this activity (And many others) and only issue a salp on the wrist to the guilty when they bother to catch them that is.

This farcical situation is dsue to get even worse however as currently there is a proposal to introduce a new National Crime Agency for the UK to crack down on crimes like this plus many others like people trafficking drug running etc etc.

However the Republicans whoes criminal money men indulge in things like the above fuel laundering and smuggling would go out of business if such an agency was introduced so their political mouthpiece Gerry Adams (who spends a lot of his time supporting Palestinian terror groups) is demanding that members of the new NCA shouldn't even have the power in Northern Ireland to arrest anyone. IT WOULD BE FARCICAL IF IT WASN'T SO SERIOUS. The worst of it is our government is more than willing to oblige him

BELOW IS A SHOPPING LIST OF GERRYS DEMANDS TO HAMSTRING THE NEW NCA
n That the NCA director-general (DG) would not have the powers of a constable in Northern Ireland, meaning there would not be two Chief Constables with authority here and the PSNI would have primacy;

n The DG may not direct PSNI officers, unlike in England and Wales;

n The NCA would be subject to the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland;

n NCA special support staff, who can provide additional expertise, would not have the powers of constables here, as opposed to the position in England and Wales;

n The justice minister would be consulted on the NCA’s strategic and annual plans.

This last one is a beezer as given the Stormont powersharing arrangements the "Justice Minister" could shortly be an ex terrorist crony of Gerry Adams himself

READ MORE BELOW
Crime Agency ‘shouldn’t have policing powers’
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/hea...wers-1-4733845

When this news gets out Ulster is going to become crime central, with big time criminals when they realise that by abusing Northern Ireland they can thumb their noses at otherwise effective anti crime agencies here, who will be totally hamstrung by clever lawyers who will inevitably have carte blanche to fleece the taxpayers with an unending string of hugely costly and uniquely complex legal cases, which will result in the worst kind of criminals foreign and domestic, walking as this "political policing" deal will in practice make them like teflon.

If I was a cynical person I would nearly think that this was a British Government wheeze to buy off one lot of terrorists in the hope of stopping them joining up with the dissidents