13 hours ago
The great Scottish tea swindler: Conman who bought tea from around the world and sold it to luxury shops and hotels as Scottish-grown is jailed for three years
A conman who bought tea from around the world and sold it on to luxury shops and hotels as Scottish-grown has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.
Thomas Robinson, 55, rented land on a former sheep farm near Loch Tay and began supplying the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh with what he described as authentic Scottish tea.
He claimed he had been told that tea he supplied to London 's five-star Dorchester Hotel was 'the Queen's favourite'.
He even bought tea plants from a nursery in Sussex and planted them for show in a former kitchen garden at Dalreoch Farm, Amulree, Perthshire, shortly before a visit from a buyer acting for the food store Fortnum & Mason.
Robinson said he had found a way to make his tea grow in half the usual time by using a 'special biodegradable polymer' - which the prosecution said looked like black bin liner - and claimed to have given a presentation on his methods to the Royal Horticultural Society.
Robinson was found guilty last month of defrauding tea growers of £274,354 and the hotels and tea companies of £278,634 - a total of nearly £553,000 - between January 1, 2014, and end of February 2019.
He had maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings, claiming that paperwork he could have used in his defence had been destroyed in a flood and his electronic records wiped.
Imposing the jail sentence at Stirling Sheriff Court today, Sheriff Keith O'Mahony told him he had 'repeatedly made false statements that were self-promotional, designed to offer assurances that he should be regarded honest and trustworthy'.
Robinson's trial previously heard that he told elaborate tales to customers while trading as 'The Wee Tea Plantation' and had what the prosecution described as the 'CV of a fantasist'.
He secured deals to supply his tea products from his own plants and other tea gardens in Scotland to France's oldest tea house Mariage Frères, as well as the Balmoral, The Dorchester, Fortnum & Mason and a Dunfermline-based firm called The Wee Tea Company. The court heard Robinson bought more than a ton of tea grown abroad, repacked it and sold it on.
One expert said a kilogram of top tea from Africa could be sold for 100 times its cost if passed off as grown in Scotland.
Between 2015 and 2018 he supplied 22,000 plants to a dozen other growers in Scotland, and one in Jersey, at £12.50 each.
Over the same period he was actually importing tea plants at £2.50 each from Italy.
He either passed them off as Scottish-grown or allowed his customers to assume they were. Many died or did not thrive, and yields were a fraction of what he led his customers to expect.
His is other 'elaborate lies' included that he'd sold tea to Kensington Palace, played rugby for Blackheath, was a multi-millionaire, a landowner, a polymer scientist, had invented the 'Bag For Life', had served in the British Army in bomb disposal, and had worked for the Obama administration in America.
He sowed success stories in the Press and appeared on a BBC podcast, saying he'd learned to force tea plants 'like rhubarb under a sink'. An expert said this would actually kill them.
Robinson later claimed that with the exception of 15,000 plants sold to the grower in Jersey, all the Italian plants had been in Scottish ground for a period and that made them Scottish.
The scam began to unravel early in 2017 after Perth and Kinross Council checked whether Robinson had a food processing licence and a government adviser visited to explain about plant passports.
The food crime and incidents unit of Food Standards Scotland (FSS) was called in, and a probe was launched.
He told the advisor the only plants he had were for his own use, then, in what the Crown said was an attempted cover-up, he sent out a story to the local Press claiming thousands of plants had been stolen.
The Food Crime and Incidents Unit of Food Standards Scotland launched an investigation, headed by a retired police inspector.
Representing himself, Robinson, who has been remanded in custody since being convicted, continued to insist it was possible to grow tea commercially in Scotland.
He told the court: 'I've time to wrestle with this over sleepless nights in my cell.
'Hubris and arrogance led me to believe I did my best. I hope my actions have not detracted from the truthful success that can be achieved for people who want to grow tea in Scotland.
'I apologise if my actions have besmirched the reputation of that capability.'Sheriff O'Mahony said: 'Witness after witness gave evidence that they would not have transacted with Mr O'Brien had they known the true position regarding the providence of the plants and the tealeaves.
'Numerous individuals keen to develop a possible tea-growing occupation were persuaded by him on the basis of false pretences to hand over significant sums of money.'Robinson nodded as the sentence was announced, before the video link to the prison where he is being held was cut.
He also faces proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Following the hearing, Helen Nisbet, Procurator Fiscal for Tayside, Central and Fife, said: 'Fraud is not a victimless crime. Individuals, businesses, and genuine Scottish tea growers suffered financial and reputational harm as a consequence of Robinson's deceit.
'But thanks to partnership working between Food Standards Scotland, Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, he has been brought to account for his crimes.'
Ron McNaughton, head of the Scottish Food Crime and Incidents Unit at Food Standards Scotland, added: 'His actions caused real financial and reputational harm to individuals, businesses and a developing sector of genuine Scottish tea produce.'
