Crime gang courier sentenced in Derry for evading customs duty on tobacco
A county Derry pensioner described a trusted courier for an organised criminal gang who had access to over two million smuggled cigarettes, has been sentenced at Derry Crown Court for evading customs duty.
The court heard the defendant, Patrick Martin Higgins, 73, from Greenvale Park in Magherafelt, had access to 2,403,720 smuggled cigarettes and to 305 kilogrammes of smuggled hand rolled tobacco with the value of the excise duty evaded on the cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco being estimated at almost £1,200,000.
The defendant had two previous convictions for cigarette smuggling, one in 2005 and the other in 2016.
In court he pleaded guilty of evading customs duty on 3,872 illegal cigarettes and on 1125 kilogrammes of illegal hand rolling tobacco.
A prosecution barrister told Judge Roseanne McCormick that on April 27, 2023, police officers accompanied by officers from HMRC stopped a car being driven by the defendant along the Littlebridge Road in Coagh near Magherafelt.
Non-UK duty paid cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco were found in the car and the defendant was arrested. Two mobile phones, £6,600 in cash and several keys were also found in the car.
The keys found in the car were found to be capable of opening three containers in which HMRC believe that 2,403,720 of cigarettes and 182 kilogrammes of hand rolling tobacco were found.
The court heard the containers constituted a store owned by an organised criminal gang whose members were currently not before the court. The excise duty evaded on approximately 2,407,593 cigarettes and 305 kgs of hand rolling tobacco was £1,188,612.
Higgins was said to be one of about 20 individuals who were employed by the criminal organisation to take orders from it and from individual customers for supplies of cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco.
"The operation was described that upon receipt or an order of a customer or a direction from the organised criminal gang such individuals then proceeded to and opened a container and removed the contraband, delivered same to the customer, taking payment from the customer and thereby giving it to the organised criminal gang.”
The individuals were paid a wage for each day they performed such a service for the organised criminal gang, the maximum payment for a day's work being £200, the court heard.
The prosecutor said the defendant had 18 previous convictions, two of them relevant. In October 2005 he was jailed for three months for fraudulently evading duty on chargeable goods and in 2016 received a suspended sentence after being arrested at a storage location used for storing over 500,000 cigarettes and over 130 kg of hand rolling tobacco.
Judge McCormick said initially the defendant claimed he was acting under duress but no evidence of duress was found on two mobile phones seized from him.
She said: "This is highly culpable offending. Offending like this harms our communities and our businesses and deprives the revenue of money which otherwise would be made available to the public purse. The value of the amounts involved is significant. This defendant was a trusted courier acting on behalf of an organised criminal gang.”
Judge McCormick said while normally a custodial sentence would be imposed in such a case, with the maximum sentence being 14 years, she was taking an exceptional course in imposing a suspended sentence given the contents of numerous reports from medical experts in relation to the defendant's multiple and serious physical and mental health issues.
"Those issues justify a sentence of 42 months, suspended for three years. I am also ordering a compensation order of £5,000 to be paid within 20 weeks.”