"professional smugglers"Bernard Hughes, 48, and Fionnuala Kelly, 39, both from Cathedral Road, Armagh, and Malachy Hughes, 54,

Three men and a woman who made £1.2m through smuggled fuel have been given the UK's first crime prevention orders.
They will be barred from selling oil. Bernard Hughes, 48, and Fionnuala Kelly, 39, both from Cathedral Road, Armagh, and Malachy Hughes, 54, from the Portadown Road in the city received two years' imprisonment, suspended for five years, and had confiscation orders totalling £1.2m served against them. Michael Hughes, 58, from the Castleblaney Road, Keady, County Armagh, received nine months suspended for two years. s and their assets and bank accounts will be open to official inspection for the next five years.
They ran a distribution company that moved fuel from the Republic of Ireland to supply four filling stations in Northern Ireland in November 2004.
The four, described as professional smugglers, got suspended sentences. Mr Justice Stevens told Newry Crown Court: "There was a clear pattern of deliveries made mainly in the early morning, with tankers scouted to filling stations controlled by the defendants, evidenced by Customs and Excise surveillance."


The defendants controlled the distribution company and petrol stations.
They pleaded guilty to being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of excise duty. The judge said the four were "professional smugglers".
John Whiting, assistant director of criminal investigation at Revenue and Customs, said they wanted to tackle the illegal fuel trade at all points in the supply chain, from smuggling and laundering through to storage, distribution and eventual use.
"Serious Crime Prevention Orders are an important new tool to aid the reduction of harm caused by serious organised crime and Revenue and Customs is determined to make early use of them as a deterrent against those involved in fuel fraud," he said.

Posted in: Armagh