Lorry driver convicted for part in scam

Altogether, the fraudsters were sentenced at Leeds Crown Court to a total of 10 years and eight months for their part in the scam which could have cost taxpayers more than 2m in lost excise duty and VAT.

Revenue and Customs officials said the gang used a company called Euro Commodities, based near Bradford, to run an operation centred on the distribution of illegally imported mixed oil, together with the theft of hundreds of thousands of litres of petrol and diesel from one of the UK’s largest oil refineries.

Directors Paul Kelly, 41, of Newry in Northern Ireland, and Derek Little, 34, of no fixed address, used the firm to organise a plot to illegally import base oil from the continent and adapt it for use in UK road vehicles.

The men arranged deliveries of significant amounts of illegal fuel from Europe to premises in Cullingworth near Bradford where it was then shipped on to petrol stations – including one at Boroughbridge in North Yorkshire – commercial fleets and haulage companies around the UK by Gary Briggs, a HGV lorry driver of Holden Road, in Wibsey, Bradford.

Briggs – given 12 months in prison – had his term suspended for two years and received a 250-hour community punishment order.

They were caught during investigations by Customs.