Fraudster jailed for selling fake ‘Scottish-grown tea’

Paul Ward and Steven GoddenBBC Scotland NewsRex/ShutterstockThomas Robinson provided high-end institutions equivalent to Edinburgh’s Balmoral Lodge and the Dorchester in LondonA fraudster who tricked luxurious resorts and shops into shopping for “Scottish-grown tea” that was really from overseas has been jailed for three-and-a-half-years.Thomas Robinson additionally conned aspiring tea growers by promoting them crops he claimed had been “specifically engineered” to develop in Scotland’s local weather – however in actuality that they had merely been purchased in from Italy.The 55-year-old, who was identified to his many shoppers as Tam O’ Braan, spun an elaborate backstory claiming amongst different issues that he was a former bomb disposal skilled, had lived within the Amazon and had invented the “bag for all times”.Final month he was discovered responsible of the £550,000 rip-off that spanned 5 years from 2014.He provided high-end clients equivalent to Edinburgh’s Balmoral Lodge and the Dorchester in London with forms of tea with names like Highland Inexperienced, Silver Needles and Scottish Antlers Tea.Sentencing Robinson and Stirling Sheriff Court docket, Sheriff Keith O’Mahony stated his crimes weren’t victimless and concerned “vital and protracted planning”.Getty ImagesThomas Robinson raked in a whole bunch of hundreds of kilos in his elaborate scamTrading as The Wee Tea Plantation, Robinson claimed his brews had been grown on farmland in Perthshire and Dumfries and Galloway, however actually the tea had been purchased from a wholesaler in Oxford and resold at hugely-inflated costs.Considerations had been raised with the authorities when real tea growers caught wind that Robinson had populated the Balmoral Lodge’s Palm Court docket luxurious tea menu with Scottish manufacturers.Richard Ross is a tea author who helped expose Thomas Robinson’s fraudRichard Ross purchased 500 crops from Robinson in 2015 however because the crop failed he adopted tales of Robinson within the media.”I heard concerning the Balmoral tea listing and determine to go and take a look,” Mr Ross stated.”He’d taken names of real plantations however no-one concerned within the precise plantations had heard they had been promoting to The Balmoral and that is as a result of none of them had produced any tea from their crops.”In 2017, Perth and Kinross Council began to test if Robinson had a meals processing licence. On the identical time Meals Requirements Scotland (FSS) was alerted and Robinson’s fraud started to unravel.Stuart Wilson from Meals Requirements Scotland stated Thomas Robinson made a number of false claims concerning the tea he soldLead investigator Stuart Wilson stated: “It did not take lengthy to determine that the tea he was promoting to the resorts was being purchased from wholesalers, more likely to have originated in Sri Lanka or India.”He’d created such a narrative that folks had been taken alongside. As soon as we began digging into it, it was fairly clear that not solely might the amount of tea not be grown however the crops he bought could not have been grown both within the portions claimed.”Mr Wilson added: “It was fairly clear there have been quite a lot of false claims.”He claimed at sure factors to be a chemist, a scientist and an agronomist. He claimed to have served within the Military in addition to many different issues. “Digging in to every side, it was fairly clear that each one of those had been falsehoods and he constructed up his lies upon these falsehoods.”‘Sincerest apologies’The Balmoral stated it was “shocked and devastated” when the fraud was found and has since tightened its procurement course of.Normal supervisor Andrew McPherson stated: “We work onerous to assist native Scottish meals producers, offering them with a world platform to showcase their merchandise.”To have been deceived in such a calculated method left us all profoundly disillusioned and embarrassed.”Because the lodge basic supervisor, I wish to prolong my sincerest apologies to everybody affected by this tea incident, significantly our loyal company, who trusted within the authenticity and high quality of our choices.”Robinson could not assist however embellish his credentials when making an attempt to defraud. He boasted that tea he had provided to London’s Dorchester Lodge in 2017 was “the Queen’s favorite”.Getty ImagesThomas Robinson claimed his brews had been grown on farmland in Perthshire and Dumfries and GallowayThe media was additionally taken in with quite a few tales showing about his tea “success”, together with on the BBC Information web site and in a BBC podcast.One journal characteristic launched Robinson as having beforehand lived “on a canoe within the Amazon, bitten by a lethal snake in Brazil and shot at on the Thailand-Burma border” earlier than he turned to tea.Throughout his trial, it was heard that he created the “CV of a fantasist” – claiming he was a multi-millionaire, a former bomb disposal skilled and an inventor.He claimed to have developed a “particular biodegradable polymer” that might make the tea crops develop in half the standard time. The court docket was instructed it appeared identical to a black bin liner.Mr Wilson from the FSS investigation stated Robinson was a singular character.”Fraudsters will do no matter it take to proceed their lies however as soon as caught they have an inclination to decrease away into the background – however Tam O’Brann, or Thomas Robinson, was fairly pleased to face up in court docket and proceed his lies.”Clearly the jury did not consider him.”Tea enthusiastsAlong with the resorts, high-end outlets had been additionally focused, raking in £278,000 for Robinson.When a purchaser from the distinguished meals retailer Fortnum and Mason’s needed to go to his plantation close to Loch Tay, he hurriedly purchased in crops from a nursery in Sussex and put them on present.Robinson’s rip-off additionally hit tea lovers making an attempt to construct the business in Scotland.He defrauded a dozen real tea growers in Scotland and one from Jersey by supplying them with 22,000 crops at £12.50 every.Robinson claimed they had been “specifically engineered” for Scottish circumstances however he had really imported them from a horticulturist in Italy at round £2 per plant.Most of the crops died or did not thrive whereas Robinson made virtually £275,000 from the gross sales.Islay Henderson and her husband purchased 1,500 crops from Thomas RobinsonIslay Henderson began rising tea at a plantation in Tighnabruaich, in Argyll and Bute, seven years in the past, after listening to a radio interview with Hamilton.She and her husband purchased 1,500 crops from him.”He instructed us we had been shopping for tea (crops) that had been selectively grown in Scotland for 11 years, so we thought we had Scottish seed that had already been trialled. “After we realised they weren’t really from Scotland, it was fairly a fear.”We felt actually lied to – he was promising a lot with these crops and I suppose that is when the suspicion grew to become a bit extra apparent.”Robinson denied the fraud at his trial and claimed paperwork that might have proved his innocence had been destroyed in a flood.He stated he was happy with his work and instructed the jurors: “I needed to depart one thing that might stand within the historical past of tea.”‘Sincere toil’Real tea grower Mr Ross stated the business in Scotland had been broken however was now transferring on.”It is onerous sufficient to persuade folks that tea rising is a factor in Scotland,” he stated.”It is taken a variety of years for us to bolster our credentials. Tea Scotland has now collaboratively produced a tea – a product of sincere toil.”He added: “Proper from the primary day when tea was traded on this nation there was nefarious practices round it. “There’s been smuggling, contraband tea, counterfeit tea.”When there’s cash to make from a high-value product, there’s all the time any person who’s going to try to take a shortcut and attempt to take advantage of it.”