Fraudster made more than £1m selling fake 'Scottish-grown tea'

A fraudster who tricked luxury hotels and stores into buying "Scottish-grown tea" that was actually from abroad made more than £1m from his criminal conduct, a court has heard.

Thomas Robinson, 56, was jailed for three-and-a-half years last June after he was found guilty of a £550,000 scam that spanned five years from 2014.

But Stirling Sheriff Court heard Robinson, who was known to his many customers as Tam O'Braan, profited by almost twice that amount.

Now prosecutors are attempting to recover the money he made from the scam.

Fiscal depute Asif Rashid said the "benefit amount" alleged by the Crown was £1.068m.

Rashid said it had been thought the amount was even higher - £1.6m - but after eliminating an element of double counting the Crown submitted the lower figure.

The revelation came during a preliminary hearing on an action by the Crown under the Proceeds of Crime Act to assess and confiscate the money Robinson made through fraud.

How much Robinson is eventually ordered to pay the public purse will depend on his available assets, which have not yet been revealed in open court.

Any defence challenge to the alleged benefit amount will also be considered.

Trading as "The Wee Tea Plantation", Robinson ordered tea plants from gifts nursery in Sussex and planted them in the kaleyard of a former sheep farm rented near Loch Tay.

He showed the tea plants to buyers from outlets including upmarket department store Fortnum & Mason.

The 56-year-old claimed to have found a way to make his tea flourish despite Scotland's weather using a "special biodegradable polymer", which prosecutors said resembled black bin liner.

Robinson also supplied high-end customers such as Edinburgh's Balmoral Hotel and the Dorchester in London with varieties of tea with names like Highland Green, Silver Needles and Scottish Antlers Tea.

Jurors heard he had bought more than one tonne of tea grown abroad, repacked it and sold it on.

The foreign tea was delivered to a mailbox address in Glasgow and paid for through a private bank account to disguise it.

Prosecutors said a kilogram of African tea could be sold for 100 times its cost if it was passed as grown in Scotland.

Robinson, of Amulree, Perthshire, denied the crime, claiming paperwork he could have used in his defence had been destroyed in a flood and his electronic records were wiped.

A further preliminary hearing is set to be held on 18 March, with a full hearing in the case due to be heard later this Spring.