A man has been jailed for taking part in a fuel duty and money laundering scam worth £10 million.
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) reports that Londoner Nigel Barratt was sentenced to 28 months in jail after he was involved in a scheme that laundered low duty fuels to remove the chemical marker.
The fuel was then sold on as legitimate diesel, with the profits being channelled through a number of bank accounts and cheque cashing companies.
Mr Barratt also received a Serious Crime Prevention Order stopping him from trading in fuels in the future.
Mike O’ Grady, assistant director of criminal investigation at HMRC, said: “[Laundered fuel] undercuts honest businesses and has devastating effects on the environment when the toxic by-products of the laundering process are dumped in the countryside, costing tens of thousands of pounds in clean up costs.”
Mr Barratt was part of a six person crime gang whose other members have also been detained.