Beer Tax Fraud Inquiry: Majority of beer fraud organised by criminal gangs, says FWD chief
James Bielby, chief executive of the Federation of Wholesale Distributors (FWD) supported calls for beer duty fiscal stamps as he believes enforcement alone is not enough to tackle the scale of the issue.
“If you look at the number of prosecutions they are very low because it is hugely resource intensive to tie up HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) officers,” he said.
“HMRC have not got the number of officers for the scale that is needed especially at a time when HMRC’s personnel are being cut.”
“These (criminals) are also very clever guys, they are often perhaps a frontman for someone three or four layers behind. They organise their business in such a way that it is quite difficult to penetrate. ”
He urged the Government to introduce a registration scheme for wholesalers as this will target any of the rogue traders operating within that part of the supply chain. Currently this is the only area in the supply chain where substantial volumes of alcohol can be purchased by unlicensed operators.
The British Beer & Pub Association supported his calls for the move during the meeting. However, Andy Tighe, director of brewing, also raised concern about the lack of border enforcement in tracking deliveries across Europe.
He said a border electronic and control system which allows the tracking of duty in suspense products was not being used to its full potential. Concern was also raised that many lorries were crossing borders using the same paperwork which was not being monitored by customs and border controls.
