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CRIME

Three jailed in Germany for huge beer smuggling operation into UK

For over a year, three men snuck beer into Britain while pretending to sell it in northern Bavaria. The problem? Nowhere on earth has as many breweries as northern Bavaria.

Three jailed in Germany for huge beer smuggling operation into UK
Photo: DPA

A court in Hof, Bavaria on Wednesday condemned the men to jail sentences ranging between two years, and three years and three months, broadcaster Bayerische Rundfunk reports.

The smugglers' ruse was simple. In Britain tax on beer is 13 times as high as it is in Germany, so if they could pay German tax while selling the beer in Britain they stood to make a lot of money.

To do this they had around 80 trucks arrive at their shipping company headquarters in Bavaria each week, all loaded with foreign beer. On the company books these beverages went down as imports from France and a German tax rate was paid accordingly.

In truth though the lorries were simply circulating the same bottles of beer between the shipping company and a storage facility 80 kilometres down the road.

At the same time, they were buying beer in France, but the destination was not Germany, but the UK. Once they smuggled it, into Britain they sold it off on the black market for a tidy profit.

But German customs became suspicious in 2014 as they simply couldn't comprehend how 80 truck loads of foreign beer were being sold each week in northern Bavaria – as the judge pointed out during her ruling, there is no other place on earth that has such a concentration of breweries.

In December last year, the authorities finally moved in, raiding the shipping company. All three men have sat in jail ever since.

Through this deceit, the smugglers were able to avoid €23 million in tax, the court found. The men had acted with “a high level of criminal energy,” the judge said.

The eventual sentences went well beyond the punishment of a maximum two-year jail term called for by the prosecution.

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BUSINESS

Elon Musk visits Tesla’s sabotage-hit German factory

Elon Musk travelled Wednesday to Tesla's factory near Berlin to lend his workers "support" after the plant was forced to halt production by a suspected arson attack on nearby power lines.

Elon Musk visits Tesla's sabotage-hit German factory

The Tesla CEO addressed thousands of employees on arrival at the site, accusing “eco-terrorists” of the sabotage as he defended his company’s green credentials.

With his son X AE A-XII in his arms, Musk said: “I am here to support you.”

The billionaire’s visit came a week after power lines supplying the electric carmaker’s only European plant were set on fire in an act of sabotage claimed by a far-left group called the Vulkangruppe (Volcano Group).

READ ALSO: Far-left group claims ‘sabotage’ on Tesla’s German factory

Musk had said then that the attack was “extremely dumb”, while the company said it would cost it several hundred million euros.

A week on, the lights have come back on at the site, but Andre Thierig, who heads the site, said on LinkedIn that it would “take a bit of time” before production is back to full speed.

Industry experts have warned that the reputational impact caused by the sabotage on the region could be more severe than the losses suffered by Tesla.

Tesla’s German plant started production in 2022 following an arduous two-year approval and construction process dogged by administrative and legal obstacles.

Tesla wants to expand the site by 170 hectares and boost production up to one million vehicles annually to feed Europe’s growing demand for electric cars and take on rivals who are shifting away from combustion engine vehicles.

But the plans have annoyed local residents, who voted against the project in a non-binding ballot last month.

After the vote, Tesla said it might have to rethink the plans. Environmental activists opposed to the expansion of the factory have recently also set up a camp in a wooded area near the plant.

READ ALSO: Why is Tesla’s expansion near Berlin so controversial?

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