Woman who helped to run illegal tobacco factory pays back £1

Times

2 days ago

A woman who set up Scotland's largest illegal tobacco factory to cheat the taxman out of more than £800,000 of duty has had just £1 confiscated by prosecutors.
Wiktoria Bejma was being pursued for confiscation of all her assets under proceeds of crime laws which allow money, property or other valuables acquired through criminal activities to be seized by the Crown.
However, Bejma's legal team told Livingston sheriff court that she had not profited from her crime and could afford to pay only a nominal £1 to bring proceedings against her to an end.
After hearing submissions from Bejma's lawyer and the Crown, Sheriff Chloe Walker approved the deal.
Bejma, 29, was one of five Lithuanians arrested when police and HM Revenue & Customs officers raided an industrial unit in West Lothian in January 2022.
She was the only member of the gang who remained in Scotland and went to court. She had earlier admitted being involved in processing, manufacturing and packaging tobacco products at a business park in Broxburn between October 20, 2022 and January 13, 2023.
By pleading guilty she accepted that she had taken preparatory steps to evade excise duty on counterfeit tobacco products with intent to defraud.
The court was told that Bejma was instrumental in starting the sophisticated factory, which was being used to process about four tonnes of tobacco to make cigarettes and rolling tobacco for sale. She arranged transport and accommodation for workers and was involved in marketing the illicit tobacco products.
Police acting on a tip-off went to the industrial unit. They saw a man run into another room and slam the door shut. Inside another room they found Bejma and three men 'actively involved in the process of operating highly sophisticated tobacco production and packaging machines'.
The factory unit had been fitted with special insulation to mask noise from the machines and smells from tobacco processing.
HMRC officers found a mobile phone said to belong to Bejma containing a message stating, 'It starts tomorrow' and others arranging places for the workers to live in Edinburgh. Another message asked: 'When will we get cigarettes to move?' and videos and images showed the machines in operation.
Prosecutors estimated that the duty evaded was £815,607.50.
Bejma, who had no previous convictions, has since had a baby and moved to England. She said that she became involved only because her business failed as a result of the Covid pandemic and she found herself unable to repay a loan. She claimed that she had visited the premises only twice but conceded that she had played an active role in running the operation.
The sheriff told Bejma that she had escaped being jailed because a custodial sentence would have a detrimental effect on her baby. As a direct alternative to prison, she imposed a community payback order comprising 12 months of social work supervision and 300 hours of unpaid work.
She told Bejma she would be electronically tagged to remain in her home in England from 8.30pm to 7am for five months.
Her co-accused fled the country and European arrest warrants have been issued for them.