Diesel washing plant found
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YET ANOTHER diesel laundering plant has been seized by the Irish Customs Service on a farm near Culdaff. County Donegal. Officers found 21,000 litres of laundered mineral oil and a Northern Ireland registered oil tanker on the farm. The plant had the capacity to launder 20,000 litres of fuel a week with a potential annual revenue loss of €450,000 in excise duty and VAT.
Rebated green diesel, available in the Republic of Ireland, and red diesel, available in Northern Ireland. cannot legally be used in road vehicles; washing it removes markers and dyes from the diesel. The diesel is then sold to hauliers and to some filling stations for sale as legitimate fuel.
But a Revenue spokesperson warns that the chemicals and acids used in laundering remain in the diesel and can cause severe damage to vehicles' engines and fuel pumps Over time.
The spokesman adds that people buying laundered fuel should also consider what happens to the waste by-products and the damage it causes by contamination to arable land and to rivers, as well as to working vehicles.