A Perthshire businessman has been jailed for an elaborate £550,000 fake Scottish tea scam.
Thomas Robinson claimed to have produced the Queen’s favourite brew at Scotland’s first commercial tea plantation in the hills of Amulree, south of Aberfeldy.
He made up awards and qualifications to help land sales with luxury hotels and genuine Scottish growers throughout the country.
His teas were sold to the Dorchester, the Balmoral and Fortnum and Mason.
Fife’s Wee Tea Company was also duped into packaging and selling his fake Scottish products.
In reality, the plants Robinson claimed were grown at his Perthshire home had been bought wholesale from a supplier in northern Italy.
Other crops were purchased from UK vendors to decorate a 0.3 acre “kitchen garden” at his farm, ahead of visits from potential buyers.
Robinson – also known as Tam O’Braan and Thomas O’Brien – was convicted of forming a fraudulent scheme over a period of more than five years following a trial at Falkirk Sheriff Court.
He appeared at Stirling Sheriff Court via videolink from HMP Low Moss on Wednesday for sentencing.
Statement of regret
Robinson represented himself after his lawyer withdrew from acting on his behalf.
He read out a prepared statement in mitigation, described as his former lawyer Virgil Crawford as a “statement of regret.”
He said he was “in shock” when the jury returned its unanimous verdict of guilty.
”I have had time in prison to consider the fact that I am guilty and responsible for these actions,” he said.
“This includes any criminal actions of the business, for which I was sole director.”
Robinson said: “I rather arrogantly believed that I knew best in respect of all things.
“Crucially, when I suspected something wasn’t correct I didn’t act as I should have.“
He said the man who committed those crimes was “not the man who sits before you now.”
“I have since had time to wrestle with this over sleepless nights in my cell,” he told the court.
“I have come to realise how wrong and stupid I have been.”
He said he should have been more transparent and “owned up to the situation.”
“As someone who goes to church, I know that sin is to do something, but it is also not to do the right thing.
“The strain of that has hung over me every morning I wake up in my cell.”
He accepted he was responsible for reputational damage of his victims, and mentioned his scheme was supported by the Scottish Government – thought to be referring to a £20k grant he received from the European Development Fund, via Scottish Enterprise, to run tests on plastic sheeting.
Robinson, who latterly worked as a chef at Taymouth Castle, said remand had been a “very difficult” time for him.
He said he had been too ashamed to go home to his children and explain his conviction.
“This is not excuse but its an acceptance of the serious nature of my actions and inactions,” he said. “I throw myself on the mercy of the court.”
False statements
Sheriff Keith O’Mahony said: “The two charges run to a duration in excess of five years and the total amount of money obtained by fraud comes to £552,988.
“By any measure, these convictions must be regarded as significant.”
He added: “Mr O’Brien demonstrated significant, determined and sometimes complex planning in order to achieve a fraudulent outcome.
“He repeatedly made false statements to numerous parties that were self-promotional and designed to offer assurances that he was honest and trustworthy.”
He said: “These charges are not victimless”, pointing out several witnesses said they would not have transacted with Robinson if they knew the truth.
“I have concluded that the only appropriate disposal here is a custodial one.”
Robinson dropped his head as he was sentenced to three-and-a-half years.
The court heard he plans to appeal against this conviction.
Suspicions raised
During his trial, father-of-four Robinson doubled down on his claims the plants were authentically Scottish-grown, claiming he was proud of what he called his “life’s work”.
But any paperwork and documents he could have used to support his case were destroyed in a flood, he said.
Suspicions were raised in early 2017 when, on the back of a media buzz, Perth and Kinross Council visited Robinson’s Dalreoch farm at Amulree to check the scale of the operation.
They were told that production was being carried out at a facility in Fife.
But a subsequent probe by Fife Council could find no such facility.
And when the site was next visited by a Scottish Government advisor to inquire about plant passports, Robinson sent a press release to The Courier claiming thousands of his plants had been stolen by thieves.
The food crime and incidents unit of Food Standards Scotland was called in.
Its investigation, led by retired police inspector Stuart Wilson, gathered statements from dozens of witnesses over four years.
As the probe progressed, Dalreoch teas were pulled from hotel menus and Robinson’s role as director of the Wee Tea Company was terminated.
Bizarre web of lies
Robinson, who traded as the Wee Tea Plantation, was convicted of defrauding 12 individual buyers out of £274,354 and hotels and businesses of £278,634 between January 1 2014 and February 28 2019.
He tried to protect himself in a web of lies.
But his often extraordinary claims spectacularly unspooled under scrutiny.
He claimed, for example, to have been in the armed forces, which prosecutors believed was to make himself appear more trustworthy.
He told people he was a bomb disposal expert and had seen a man killed in combat.
But any evidence of his army days were lost in the flood, and now sitting in a bag of papery mush in his back shed, he said.
When asked what kind of discharge he received from the army, he replied: “Regular”.
At his trial, Robinson also claimed to have had a successful career as a professional rugby player and coach.
He said, without a jot of evidence, he had invented the bag for life and ran crop trials for then-US President Barrack Obama.
When Robinson’s farm was investigated and no equipment could be found to support a large-scale tea growing business, he said pieces of kit had been moved to a family farm in Ireland.
But he blamed an IT technician for losing photographic evidence of this equipment, after he allowed his cloud storage to be turned off.
Robinson will now face proceeds of crime action to reclaim at least some of the money his scam amassed.
Read full coverage of the trial here.
Read about more of tea blagger Robinson’s tall tales including his Army career and investing the Bag for Life, here.
Read more from those scalded in the great tea blag, such as those persuaded he had won prestigious medals and the BBC, here.
