Scammer dubbed ‘Tetley Tam' jailed for £500k ‘Scottish' tea swindle
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A TEA scammer dubbed Tetley Tam was jailed for 3½ years - as he apologised in court for bringing shame on the cuppa industry.
Fraudster Thomas Robinson, 55, tricked luxury hotels and stores into buying 'Scottish-grown tea' that was actually from abroad.
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Thomas Robinson (AKA Tetley Tam) was jailed for his £500k tea scam
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EDINBURGH, UNITED KINGDOM – 2021/07/13: The Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Dinendra Haria/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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J2Y1FB Cup of tea Teapot Tea Pot Refreshing Refreshment Crockery Stimulant Beverage British
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Bundles and piles of UK sterling banknotes
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The conman -who appeared in BBC podcasts about his bogus venture - fleeced customers of more than £500k as part of the tea leaf scam.
He said he is wracked with guilt over his five-year scam of buying cheap foreign tea and selling it at a premium as 'Scottish'.
Robinson, 55 — who asked clients to call him Mr Tea — told a sentencing hearing he is plagued with remorse about the 'reputational damage' he caused to genuine tea growers here.
He said: 'I've had time to wrestle with this over sleepless nights, coming to realise how wrong and stupid I've been.
'The stigma of misleading others — I should have been much more transparent and owned up to the situation.'
We told how Robinson told customers his cuppa leaves had been grown on his Perthshire estate.
But he was importing them at a fraction of the cost he charged.
Speaking at Stirling Sheriff Court via a video link from HMP Low Moss, where he was remanded last month, Robinson pleaded to be spared a jail term.
He said: 'I go to church, I'm perfectly aware that a sin is not only to do something, but also not to do the right thing.
'The shame of that hangs over me every morning, every time I wake up in my cell.
Shameless moment crook counts £30k in cash he swindled from vulnerable pensioners
'I solemnly hope my actions have not detracted from the success which can be achieved for people who want to grow tea in Scotland.
"I can only offer my sincere apologies if my actions have besmirched that capability.'
Robinson's victims between 2014 and 2019 included Edinburgh's Balmoral Hotel, the Dorchester Hotel in London and top end store Fortnum & Mason.
Trading as the Wee Tea Plantation, the crook also flogged 22,000 £3 plants from Italy to Scots growers for £12.50 each.
His scam echoes that of Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses who filled bottles with tap water and sold them as a premium product called 'Peckham Spring'.
Robinson, also known as Tam O'Braan and Thomas O'Brien, was rumbled by Food Standards Scotland investigators. And Perth and Kinross Council checked if he had a food processing licence.
Lead investigator Stuart Wilson said: 'He'd created such a story that people were taken along.
'Once we started digging into it, it was quite clear that not only could the quantity of tea not be grown but the plants he sold couldn't have been grown either in the quantities claimed.'
Balmoral general manager Andrew McPherson said: 'To have been deceived in such a calculated manner left us all profoundly disappointed and embarrassed.'
Fantasist Robinson, who said he got Scottish Government support for his 'scheme', even claimed one of his brands was 'the Queen's favourite'.
Jailing him for three-and-a-half years, Sheriff Keith O'Mahony said: 'By any measure these convictions must be regarded as significant. People were convinced on false pretences to hand over significant sums of money.'
Rob McNaughton, of the Scottish Food Crime and Incidents Unit, said: 'The custodial sentence reflects the scale and impact of Mr Robinson's deception.'
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