Conman dubbed Tetley Tam caged for £550,000 scam buying cheap foreign tea and selling as 'Scottish'
TEA LEAF Conman dubbed Tetley Tam caged for £550,000 scam buying cheap foreign tea and selling as 'Scottish'
A CONMAN dubbed Tetley Tam was today caged for a £550,000 scam — buying cheap foreign tea then selling it at premium prices as 'Scottish'.
Thomas Robinson, 55, told customers his cuppa-brewing leaves had been grown in fields north of the border.
But he was actually importing them for a fraction of the cost he charged the likes of Edinburgh's prestigious Balmoral Hotel.
An expert told Falkirk Sheriff Court tea from Africa could fetch 100 times as much if sold as 'Scots-grown'.
Trading as The Wee Tea Plantation, the fraudster flogged 22,000 plants to growers for £12.50 each.
He either passed them off as Scottish or allowed customers to assume they were.
But they had been acquired from Italy for less than £3 each.
Robinson bought more than a tonne of tea from overseas and repackaged it with names like Dalreoch White, Scottish Antlers Tea and Highland Green.
The Balmoral Hotel was duped into boasting: 'Our Scottish-grown teas come from gardens in our farming heartlands in Perthshire and Dumfries and Galloway.'
The fantasist alleged one brand was 'the Queen's favourite'.
Robinson also claimed to be a scientist who'd invented the 'Bag For Life', a bomb disposal expert, and that he'd worked for ex-US President Barack Obama.
Prosecutor Joanne Ritchie said he'd formed 'a scheme to make money on the basis of lies'.
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Jurors convicted Robinson, of Amulree, Perthshire, of defrauding tea growers of £274,354 and hotels and tea companies of £278,634 between 2014 and 2019.
Sheriff Keith O'Mahony remanded Robinson in custody, warning him: 'There will be significant sentencing consequences for you.'
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