"Merthyr Tydfil men ordered to payback their proceeds of crime."

The Wales Regional Asset Recovery Team has taken three Merthyr Tydfil men back to court to payback the proceeds of their criminal activities.

Customs Officers at Bristol International Airport stopped Kevin Thomas, Kristan Thomas and Benjamin Smith on 27 January 2005 following their arrival on a flight from Portugal and discovered that the three men had a total of 147,540 cigarettes in their baggage which they were attempting to smuggle into the UK. The excise duty evaded on the cigarettes totaled £21,287.
 


Bristol International airport

All three men were convicted of Revenue offences at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court in August 2005. Kristan Thomas, 25 of Caerleon Grove, Merthyr Tydfil admitted that all the cigarettes were his and that his co-defendants Kevin Thomas and Benjamin Smith had acted as couriers for him. When Kristan Thomas was stopped, he had 59,960 cigarettes in his baggage. In court, he also admitted ownership of a further 30,600 cigarettes found in abandoned baggage. Kevin Thomas, 56 of Meyrick Villas, Merthyr Tydfil was stopped with 25,000 cigarettes in his baggage. He had pleaded not guilty to one charge of fraudulently evading duty but was found guilty during his hearing in August 2005. Benjamin Smith, 20 of Pant Cadfor Cottages, Pant, Merthyr Tydfil admitted to being in possession of 31,980 cigarettes and 2.75 kilos of hand rolling tobacco. Following their conviction, the Wales Regional Asset Recovery Team asked for all three to be brought back to court to pay back the proceeds of their criminal activities.




Under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, the court ordered that they had each benefited from their activities to a total of £21,287.

Confiscation orders were made in relation to two men with Kevin Thomas being ordered to payback £22,135.55 and Benjamin Smith £200.00.

Kristan Thomas was fined a total of £1500 and given 135 hours community punishment. Kevin Thomas was also fined £7,500 and given 200 hours community punishment, with Benjamin Smith being sentenced to 80 hours community punishment