Man is jailed over illegal tobacco haul

Hua Tang Chen has been jailed

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A MAN who used a Failsworth house and illegal immigrants as part of a multi-million pound tobacco racket has been jailed ­- but his partner is on the run.

Couple Hua Tang Chen, 40, and Cui Wang 32, were the masterminds behind two huge processing plants in Manchester and London, capable of robbing the taxpayer of £1million a week and were sentenced to eight years in prison on Friday.

Processing

Chen was jailed for three years and police are now hunting Wang who absconded before she could be sentenced.

HMRC investigators raided the house in Failsworth in April where they found a processing plant as well as nearly two tons of raw tobacco.

Three illegal Chinese workers who were working and living in the house later admitted the fraudulent evasion of excise duty and were each sentenced to six months in prison in June.

Shuai Fang, 23, Suo Mei Fang, 47, and Fu Cai Chen, 47, all of Oldham Road, Failsworth, pleaded guilty on June 10 at Manchester Crown Court.

At the same time HMRC investigators raided Hua Tang Chen's girlfriend's home in Barking where they caught him unloading boxes of counterfeit packaging and duty stamps and a garage Wang rented in Chingford where they found tobacco processing machinery.

Minutes after catching Wang a delivery vehicle containing 105,800 non-UK duty paid cigarettes concealed in air filters arrived. A search of Wang's flat uncovered £20,000 in used £20 notes. The duty and taxes evaded on all the goods seized totalled £1.2 million. Cui Wang, Sunningdale Avenue, Barking, was arrested at home before the raids in London and Manchester were carried out. She was sentenced to five years in prison in her absence. Hua Tang Chen, of High Road, Tottenham, was sentenced to three years in prison when he appeared at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

Chris Gill, assistant director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said: "Hua Tang Chen and Cui Wang were overseeing a huge operation, flooding the streets of the UK with illicit tobacco with absolutely no regard to the potential harm such criminal acts cause to individuals, communities and legitimate businesses.

"Disrupting criminal trade is at the heart of our strategy to clampdown on the illicit tobacco market, which costs the UK around £2 billion a year and by dismantling this illegal operation, we have prevented millions of pounds from being stolen through the evasion of duty.

"We would urge anyone with information about people dealing in illicit cigarettes or tobacco, or the whereabouts of Cui Wang, to contact our 24-hour hotline on 0800 59 5000."