Smuggler has his court debt slashed

A £77,000 confiscation order against a Co Tyrone man in connection with millions of smuggled cigarettes is to be slashed to just £5,000, the Court of Appeal ruled today.

Senior judges reduced the cash amount recoverable from Henry Patrick McLaughlin after identifying flaws in the original process. But they rejected co-defendant Aidan Francis Grew’s challenge to being ordered to pay more than £600,000.

In 2008 both men were convicted of evading customs duty. The case against them centred on a consignment of smuggled cigarettes seized from a lorry and outbuildings in Co Armagh three years earlier.

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McLaughlin, 53, from the Coalisland area, received a two-year suspended sentence.

A judge then ordered the recovery of £77,136 from him after finding he did not have a criminal lifestyle but had benefited from the cigarette importation. McLaughlin denied having any interest in the tobacco other than a £5,000 “fixed fee” for his involvement.

Ruling on his appeal, Lord Justice Deeny held no other evidence had been presented to justify a finding of benefiting from the scheme.

“He was given no opportunity to give evidence himself. He did not receive a fair hearing on this issue,” the judge said. Under the original order McLaughlin faced having to sell his family home. But Lord Justice Deeny pointed to a duty under the Proceeds of Crime Act for others with an interest in the property to have the chance to make representations.

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Based on the passage of time, he decided against remitting McLaughlin’s case back to the Crown Court.

Instead, the judge imposed a substitute order for £5,000 to be paid within three months.

Grew, 61, from Blackwatertown, Co Armagh was contesting the £601,355 order made against him.

Dismissing grounds raised by his legal team, Lord Justice Deeny confirmed: “Aidan Grew’s appeal fails.”

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