Bootleg vodka loads trial starts
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• The trial of four men accused of bootlegging 14 lorry loads of alcohol across the Channel, evading over .C2m duty on imported vodka, has started.
Canterbury Crown Court heard Roger Pring headed an import/export company called Klondyk, which operated from Canterbury and imported the haul from Antwerp between September and December 1995.
The loads should have travelled from a bonded warehouse in Belgium to one at Burton-onTrent and duty would be payable when the goods went on the commercial market The Crown alleges the lorries were diverted and the vodka sold on at a reduced price.
Facing 14 duty evasion charges between them are Pring of Waltham, Kent, William Roberts of Bexleyheath, Kevin Clarke of Nottingham and a fourth man who cannot be named. The goods were hauled by Speed Freight, an Erith firm run by Roberts; the other two were drivers.
Peter Finnegan, prosecuting, said each lorry-load represented £ 150,000-worth of losses to the Revenue.