'Sophisticated' fuel plant seized

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A "highly efficient and sophisticated" mobile fuel-laundering plant has been dismantled in south Armagh, Revenue and Customs has said.

It was discovered in a rural area of the county on Tuesday in a joint Customs/police operation, though details have just been released.

Three thousand litres of illegal fuel were seized and six tonnes of highly toxic acid waste removed from the site.

The estimated output of the plant was 150,000 litres per week.

That would correspond to a potential annual revenue loss of £3.75m, HM Revenue and Customs said.

A curtain-sided heavy goods lorry adapted to carry a tank for transporting fuel, a fuel tanker, three metal storage tanks, and six other storage tanks containing toxic waste along with a generator, pumps and filtration equipment were also seized.

Customs said a roadway had been built to a nearby lake which bore evidence of contamination and the indiscriminate dumping of toxic waste.

"HM Revenue & Customs officers have stopped a substantial amount of harmful diesel from damaging engines and affecting honest businesses," Maggie Eyden of HMRC said.

"If this sophisticated operation to illegally remove the chemical markers in duty-rebated fuel had not been shut down, it would have meant an annual revenue loss of £3.75million.

"This is revenue that should be going to our schools and hospitals, not into the pockets of a few individuals."

She said people should also be aware of the environmental damage caused by the dumping of illegal fuel.