To ask Her Majesty's Government how many cases of illegal tobacco trading, and illegal tobacco purchase and use, have been brought before the courts in each of the past three years; what was the maximum, and the mean, penalty imposed; and what was the total gross cost of those prosecutions.
Answered on
16 October 2017
Prosecutions for illegal tobacco can be brought for a range of offences from dealing in illicit product, on which UK duty has not been paid, to breaches of the Department of Health’s regulations for tobacco control. Prosecutions can also be brought by a range of organisations including the Crown Prosecution Service and Local Authorities. Data on the total number of cases brought before the courts; the cost of those prosecutions; and the costs or penalties related to all tobacco related offences is not held centrally.
HMRC is unable to provide specific data relating to ‘illegal tobacco trading’ and ‘illegal tobacco purchase and use’, as this split is not recorded in our data. The table below shows the total number of tobacco cases dealt with by HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service over the past three financial years.
Financial Year | Operations Adopted | Revenue Loss Protected (at date of intervention) | Number of Individuals Convicted | Number of Individuals Acquitted |
2014/15 | 406 | £988,677,013 | 237 | 26 |
2015/16 | 324 | £1,004,101,439 | 268 | 26 |
2016/17 | 365 | £1,140,300,083 | 318 | 39 |
Please note that the above data do not correlate to each other - they are separate occurrences in a particular financial year.