LONDON: Two hair salon owners who smuggled 2.5 tons of tobacco into the UK in a £450,000 tax fraud have been jailed.
Mohammed Kattany, 37, director of Unique Hairdressers in Bramhall, hid smuggled fruit-flavoured tobacco from Dubai in freight imports, postal parcels and his own luggage.
He was assisted by accomplice Ahmed Al-Salaima, 33, who owned Snipz hairdressers in Withington.
Both men were arrested in July 2013 after HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) investigators seized illegal tobacco at the Port of Felixstowe, Heathrow Airport and Manchester Airport.
The smuggling attempts were traced back to companies or addresses associated with Kattany and Al-Salaima.
Manchester Crown Court heard Kattany was also the owner of Sweet and Salt, on Wilmslow Road, Rusholme. He used both businesses in the smuggling attempts.
Kattany would make multiple trips abroad, often to Dubai, in order to arrange the smuggling consignments and was caught with undeclared tobacco products in his own luggage at customs in the UK.
Al-Salaima would use Snipz to deliver and distribute the illegal tobacco into smaller vans.
Read: More than one million suspected illegal cigarettes seized in raids across Manchester and Bolton
The salon was also used as the address for parcel deliveries containing smuggled tobacco and cigarettes which were intercepted by UK Border Force officers.
Both men were linked to a third company named Rawad Trading, which was set up by Kattany.
The business was used on freight consignments for the smuggling attempts and was based at Snipz hairdressers.
Customs paperwork on the consignments and parcels falsely described the smuggled tobacco as cleaning fragrances, clothing, tablecloths, kitchen products and bathroom cleaners.
The total UK duty and VAT evasion on all of the seized products added up to £450,000.
Kattany, of Agnew Place, Salford, and Al-Salaima, of Wilmslow Road, Withington, were both sentenced to two years in prison for fraudulent evasion of excise duty.
Both men pleaded guilty to the fraudulent evasion of excise duty under the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979.
Sandra Smith, assistant director of the Fraud Investigation Service, said after sentencing: “
These determined smugglers used flimsy excuses to blame others for the hidden tobacco but all the evidence led directly to them.
“Nearly three tons of illegal tobacco were intercepted before making it to the streets of Manchester thanks to the joint work of HMRC and Border Force.
“This was a serious attempt to steal hundreds of thousands of pounds from the public purse and undermine local businesses.”
