A tobacco fraudster who spent more than three years on the run is finally behind bars after he was arrested at Heathrow Airport whilst attempting to enter the country.
Mbarak Gowie, 50, formerly of Oakington Avenue, Wembley , was sentenced in his absence to five years imprisonment in 2013 for evading almost £500,000 in duty and tax on tobacco.
He had set up a tobacco factory but failed to apply for a licence to manufacture or store shisha tobacco.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) investigators uncovered the fraud after officers intercepted packages of 4,904kgs of tobacco leaf that had arrived from Pakistan in 2011.
They identified further importations and purchases of ingredients needed to manufacture shisha tobacco.
Since his return to the UK, Gowie told investigators that he left the UK to visit a supplier in Egypt to obtain documents required in his defence.
He fled to France, then Istanbul and is believed to have settled in Lebanon.
Gowie appeared at Ipswich Crown Court on March 10 where Judge Goodin sentenced him to three months imprisonment to run concurrently with his original five year sentence.
Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.
You can even set it to receive push notifications for all the breaking news in your area.
Available to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android now!
