Natarajan/Sickle Cell Saints and Scroungers

In the UK, most of us work hard and pay our taxes.

Most people basically, intrinsically, won't fiddle.

Everyone should contribute

towards the services we expect in this country.

And we generally agree that it's right

that a proportion of what you earn should go into a pot

that's there to help you should you need it.

But that money doesn't always find its way to the right people.

Those on a middle income pay their tax,

so why shouldn't those that earn more money do the same?

I get very angry about people cheating -

because that's what it is, isn't it?

There are big changes taking place in the welfare system

here in the UK.

And now it's more important than ever that the right help

gets to the right people.

This is the world of Saints & Scroungers.

Coming up, the scroungers out to cheat the system.

Customs officials uncover a company's devious plot

to avoid paying millions of pounds of tax.

We targeted three containers from China

when they arrived, and two of them were covertly searched.

And a man who claimed he was disabled,

but still managed to get across three corners of the country

to claim three different loads of benefits.

We had evidence that Mr Mooney had benefited to at least

the sum of £185,000.

Then there are those in need of a helping hand.

A man determined to earn his own living,

despite being born with an unpredictable condition

that can hospitalise him for weeks at a time.

I felt like my body was lifeless.

This time, I thought definitely this was it.

It goes without saying

that some of the things you see on a stall like this

won't have been grown in the UK.

They have to be imported. And import and export

makes the global economy go round.

But depending on what you bring in or take out of the country,

it can change how much tax you have to pay.

So import/exporters, when it comes to tax,

really have to know their onions.

Import duty's one of a number of taxes

the UK Government levies to help pay for the vital services

we all rely on.

And the HMRC takes tax evasion very seriously.

We estimate that the hidden economy and tax evasion

costs the UK about £9 billion every year.

And it's important people pay what's due when it's due,

so that we can keep the economy going.

It's as simple as that.

58-year old Murugasan Natarajan from West Drayton in Middlesex

ran an importing company called Perfect Imports and Export,

which was based at Brent Park Industrial Estate in London.

And as an importer, he would have been aware that duty has to be paid

on certain goods that are brought in from outside the European Union.

Peter Millroy's the Assistant Director

of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs' Criminal Investigation Unit.

It's important to pay duty. One, to generate income from the Exchequer

and two, to assist in balancing out and creating a fair playing field

for EU manufacturers as well.

So if people import goods and don't pay the duty,

if it is their intention not to pay the duty, to avoid paying it,

then that's a criminal offence.

And at that stage, HMRC will investigate

and potentially prosecute.

And they could face a significant prison sentence.

HMRC has a list of all the goods you need to pay duty on.

And in 2001, garlic was added to it.

The import duty was introduced

in order to protect the growers of garlic within the EU,

because it can be grown much more cheaply in China

and elsewhere in the world.

A 9.6% duty was imposed on fresh and chilled garlic.

But a couple of years ago, the European Anti-Fraud Office

received some intelligence about the price of garlic on the streets being surprisingly low.

The issue really was around the price it was being sold at

and whether that was economic once you'd paid the import duty.

In other words, was there any profit left in it?

Surely no-one would want to sell garlic too cheaply

to make any profit?

Alarm bells were ringing. Was this a potential smuggling ring?

With this in the back of their minds,

Customs officials were on the lookout for anything suspicious

amongst companies who import garlic into the UK.

Perfect Imports and Exports was one of a number

of companies importing garlic.

And the issue first came to our attention in August of 2010,

when an importation arrived of garlic from China,

which was decided should be examined.

At the time it was examined,

the declaration was that there was something in the region of 18 tonnes of garlic in the container.

Now, it's well known by those at the ports

who deal with these kind of goods

that a full container is something like 26 tonnes.

It seemed strange to the port officials in Felixstowe

that Perfect Imports and Exports

would be bringing a container all the way from China

which was only two-thirds full.

HMRC has a number of criminal investigators,

who, due to the nature of their activities,

prefer to remain anonymous.

As soon as they realised that the container was going to be examined,

an amended entry was submitted to declare the goods at about 26 tonnes.

Which meant that Perfect had to pay

a further £9,000-worth of duty.

Officers then allowed the load to continue

and they got their goods.

So, Perfect Imports and Exports passed it off as an admin error,

and as they paid the outstanding duty quickly,

no further action was taken.

From speaking to the staff at the port

and discussing the 8-tonne discrepancy with this container,

it can be common for discrepancies to happen

and it's just a genuine mistake.

But Perfect Imports and Exports were now on the HMRC's radar

and a month later, another container of garlic arrived at 18 tonnes.

On this occasion, like before, it was selected for an examination.

The difference on this occasion was that there was no amended entry

and therefore there was a full examination of that container.

It was calculated that it weighed 25 tonnes.

And that's around another £9,000 in undeclared duty.

The company used the same defence again -

it was an admin error. They paid the extra duty

and the container was released to them.

But the Customs officers were now keeping an even closer eye on what the company was doing

and over the next six months,

noticed that they appeared to stop importing garlic from their Chinese suppliers completely.

At the time, we didn't really know what to think

of the fact that they weren't declaring any more garlic.

We just continued to monitor what they were bringing in.

We noticed that their ginger declarations

had dramatically increased - fivefold -

so effectively, there were up to 50 containers of ginger declared.

Garlic...and ginger.

They're completely different.

But not just in the way they taste and smell.

You see, if you want to import garlic,

you have to pay an EU duty.

If you import ginger...nothing.

The investigators were starting to smell something

a little bit strange.

We had a suspicion that there was something wrong

with the ginger imports.

And we started to look at lots of port information data

and shipping line information

to try and understand exactly what was going on.

This document is what they refer to as a plain paper entry.

It shows all of the information linked to this particular container.

You've got where it's from,

the bill of lading number,

the weight

and the fact that the description of the goods is ginger.

But what's important

is that for this particular container of ginger,

the temperature of the container

was minus three degrees.

And we know that ginger doesn't get shipped

at minus three, because it would be absolutely ruined once it arrives.

It led us to believe

that it wasn't actually ginger - in fact, it was garlic

that was being mis-declared.

Now, if it had been ginger,

then a three-week trip from China at minus three degrees

rather than the warmer 12 degrees Centigrade

would have meant the entire container was ruined.

Surely the company wouldn't make that mistake.

Once maybe, but not 50 times.

Because that was the number of containers the investigators

believed were suspicious.

The money that they've avoided by declaring garlic as ginger

meant that every tonne, they were saving £1,000-worth of duty.

Now, if every container is, say, 26 tonnes,

that's £26,000-worth of duty,

and it's actually more than that per container.

Now, if you add that up, it comes to almost £1.4 million,

just on those 50 containers.

And remember, that's all money that should have been going towards

paying for schools, hospitals and other crucial services.

This was potentially becoming a very serious crime indeed.

We'll find out later if the team can actually prove any wrongdoing.

For now, though, it's goodbye to the scroungers

who are dodging their dues, and hello to those we call our saints -

people who do everything to make sure that those in need

get what they deserve.

Living with a disability comes with plenty of challenges,

but you would hope that once it's clear what you're dealing with,

people would recognise that

and give you a bit of a break.

However, there are some conditions

that don't conform to the idea of what a disability should look like

and how it should behave.

And that can make life very tough.

And one disorder that doesn't follow the norm is sickle cell.

It's estimated that around 12,500 people in Britain

have sickle cell anaemia.

But it's largely an invisible condition

and many people don't really understand it.

A genetic blood disorder, it's most common in people

of African and Caribbean descent.

People who are affected by sickle cell

have an abnormality of the haemoglobin in their blood.

This sort of haemoglobin causes the red blood cells

to change from a round shape to a banana shape, a sickle.

That's where it gets its name from.

And when blood is flowing through their bodies,

it starts getting stuck, like a traffic jam -

it's not reaching all parts of their body.

This causes immense pain, known as a crisis,

that can hospitalise them for weeks on end.

And it's not just the pain that sufferers have to worry about.

With vital organs being starved of oxygen,

this can cause long-term damage, strokes

and lower life expectancy.

34-year-old Ade from London lives with the condition.

When the crises start,

your whole body shuts down. You can't move.

Even to grab the phone to call the ambulance is very difficult.

Even to walk to the bathroom,

it stops you, because your body is in pain. You can't stand up.

You know, everything is weak and you just feel like...

You feel like your life is about to end.

Ade's mother discovered before her son was born

that he had the condition.

When I was pregnant with Ade,

they took my blood and checked it

and they realised he's going to have sickle cell anaemia.

And I was advised to terminate the pregnancy.

Ade's mother couldn't bear the thought of an abortion,

so despite being told her child could only live for one year,

she continued with the pregnancy.

The first year, it wasn't too bad. The second year,

he started having little crises.

And, um...

But I was lucky, because I'm a nurse,

so I have an idea how to look after him.

But it was not easy.

Growing up with sickle cell and the agony it sometimes brings

was hard for Ade,

and sometimes he got his family to help ease the pain.

Back then, if I'm having a crisis,

like if I have a pain in my leg,

I used to ask my younger brother

to sit on my leg to put pressure on the pain to just try...

So that the pain does not spread.

So he will sit in that position for a long time until I feel better.

Ade had a difficult childhood,

involving long absences from school due to his illness.

But sickle cell doesn't just bring physical pain.

Emotionally, it can be hard to deal with too.

I don't want people to treat me differently.

I know I have sickle cell, you know.

I just want to feel...I just want to feel I'm just like you.

You understand? But I'm not.

I'm not.

So we keep it quiet to ourself.

I think we find it very embarrassing.

I just didn't want people to know that I was sick,

cos you look fine this day, then the next day,

they'll be asking, "Where are you?"

You can be gone for two weeks, three weeks, because you are in hospital.

Ade isn't alone.

Many sickle cell sufferers are ashamed of their condition.

Comfort Ndive is a Regional Care Advisor

for a charity that's been set up to raise awareness.

So, do you find that a lot of sickle cell anaemia sufferers

-fail to come forward?

-Yes.

A lot of them are living in isolation,

for fear of

being stigmatised.

So what effect does that then have on their lives,

their expectation of life?

Socially, they are isolated. They are excluded.

They don't have a good quality of life.

All they know is going into hospital and back home.

They don't participate in any activities,

they don't know what is going on out there,

or things like the services they can access.

But sufferers shouldn't really feel embarrassed.

Sickle cell is an inherited disorder

that has a one in four chance of occurring when both parents have the trait.

The condition's unbearable pain

can be triggered by a number of factors, including the weather,

stress levels and dehydration.

You've got a serious condition

that can render you really unable to do anything,

through pain and discomfort, for weeks.

-But you can't predict when it will strike.

-No.

You see, with sickle cell, it's very unpredictable.

You can work one minute, you look fine, but the next minute,

you can't even move.

They will just call an ambulance to come.

Each individual case is different.

Some people have more severe pain. They have chronic, severe crises.

Some people don't even have crises for a period of time.

It's a chronic condition that you cannot tell when it will come.

For Ade, the worst crisis he's ever experienced

came in 2005,

when he was working in a department store in London.

I went to work on that day, that morning.

I was feeling fine. Everything was OK.

Like my body was fine.

I was running up and down,

trying to serve customers.

And I went to speak to one of my colleagues

and my whole body just...

I just felt like something was wrong.

And I sat on the floor.

And I couldn't move my body after that.

It was hard for me to breathe,

so I had to tell my colleague to call me an ambulance.

Before I knew it, my chest was aching.

It felt like somebody was standing on my chest

and I couldn't breathe.

I remember the ambulance came.

I was on the sixth floor.

The ambulance came, and they put me in a wheelchair

with a gas mask on.

It was not... I didn't have pain,

but it felt like my body was gone.

Like my veins, everything, was shut down.

I felt like my body was lifeless.

And I thought I was going to...

This time, I thought definitely this was it.

That whole crisis experience took me at least...

..five months for me to properly recover,

because it was a serious one

and I was scared.

Ade coped by writing songs

to express his frustration with the condition.

But he still needed to pay the bills,

and his future was looking uncertain.

It was tough.

I couldn't do stuff that I normally do.

I was living by myself.

Bills were piling up, because I was trying to get a job.

And when you do get a job....

..when you're sick, and you tell your manager...

"Oh, you've been missing for two weeks. You've lost your job."

OK. Start all over again.

You know?

So it was...

It was very unbalanced for me at that point in my life.

Ade had claimed Jobseeker's Allowance,

but as he didn't consider himself disabled,

he had no idea that he could have access to other forms of benefits.

It's a problem that's all too common.

It's frustrating that people are not claiming benefits that they can apply for,

simply because they don't know about that benefit being there.

So it's very important for organisations like ourselves

to let them know that this is nothing to be ashamed about.

You are able to look after yourself

and keep well, but at the same time, there are other times when you're not.

This is why certain benefits are there to help you financially

to look after yourself.

Ade didn't realise there was a whole support network out there.

Join us later to find out if the Society can help him.

Now from those in need of help to those who are out to scam the system.

We all want to see fraudsters get their comeuppance,

but while a prison sentence sends out a very strong message,

if they've made money from what they've done,

well, it doesn't seem fair that they should keep it.

That's when the Proceeds of Crime Act comes into play.

The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002

was brought into play particularly to deprive criminals

of the assets that they have gained

as a result of their offending behaviour.

So it was designed to strip the assets, such as houses,

property, land, vehicles, jewellery, money,

away from people who had committed offences.

And one man who felt the sting of the Proceeds of Crime Act

is 66-year-old Robert Mooney.

In 2010, he was living in social housing

for single Irish men in the London borough of Brent.

He'd been receiving Disability Living Allowance

for an old back injury from the Department for Work and Pensions

and Housing and Council Tax Benefit totalling £125 a week

to help him along a bit until he got back on his feet.

Nothing wrong with that.

But an anonymous allegation in 2009

shed a whole new light on Mr Mooney.

Jackie Raja, a financial investigator

from the Department for Work and Pensions, was on his case.

Robert Mooney first came to the attention of Brent Housing Benefits in 2009.

They'd received an allegation that he wasn't spending much time at the property that he had in London.

Brent Council in fact had a John Mooney down as a benefit claimant

and thought the tip-off sounded a bit fishy,

so investigators did some digging

and their trail led them

to Denbighshire County Council in Wales.

They'd issued a Blue Badge and Disability Living Allowance

to someone with the name Mooney to help him get around.

But could it be two different people?

The council found that this Blue Badge that had been issued in Denbighshire

belonged to a red Jaguar.

When they did further checks, they found this red Jaguar

was registered to a George Mooney.

Denbighshire Council and Brent Council

had exchanged information and exchanged photographs

and they believed that George Mooney and John Mooney

were one and the same person.

So John and George are the same bloke,

driving a Jag and both claiming various benefits

from two different councils

hundreds of miles away from each other.

Alarm bells were now well and truly ringing off the wall.

But that wasn't everything.

They then uncovered another address, based in Manchester.

So that led to further suspicion

that potentially there were three people and three addresses and three claims being run.

The third was one Robert or Bertie Mooney

and there was only one way to find out just how far

the fraud stretched.

Time to call in the surveillance team.

Mr Mooney was driving this red Jaguar, accompanied by two females,

I understand.

He was going to the Post Office

and was withdrawing his benefit for that location from his Post Office card account.

He was then followed back to the property that he was renting

from the council, either in London or Wales.

He spent the night at that property

and then travelled back home again,

either back to Manchester or then on to Wales,

to pick up his money for the other location,

and then drove home again.

As far back as 1999, Bertie Mooney - the real Mooney -

had fraudulently pocketed around £150,000

from Denbighshire County Council,

the London Borough of Brent

and the Department for Work and Pensions.

There was now more than enough evidence

to justify searching all the properties he was linked to

and arresting him.

In the interview with the investigators,

he admitted that he had made up the other two names,

he'd made up the claims,

and that his real name actually was Robert Mooney.

So, finally, three became one.

Mt Mooney was charged with 38 counts altogether...

He was found guilty and given 18 months in prison.

Now, it always feels good when fraudsters like Mr Mooney

are given a sentence,

but what about the money he stole off us, the taxpaying public?

Jackie and her team had already been figuring out

how to get that back.

The first thing investigators did

was make some enquiries about what money Mr Mooney had.

And when he'd been arrested and his properties searched,

we'd uncovered evidence of a number of accounts that he held.

The investigators, using powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act,

were able to put a restraint on a number of accounts that Mr Mooney held,

which prevented him accessing the money in those accounts.

But in addition to that, the house searches

and investigations that we made

uncovered evidence that Mr Mooney actually owned a fourth property in Wales.

And that property was found to be up for sale

at the time that we first put the restraining order on Mr Mooney accessing his finances.

With Mooney locked up and a restraint on his assets,

he wasn't about to go on a shopping spree.

But would it cover the amount he owed?

At the time of the confiscation hearing,

we had evidence that Mr Mooney

had benefited to at least the sum of £185,000

as a result of his criminality.

It was good news, and Jackie's team had already put restraining orders

on £60,000-worth of his property and assets.

The courts gave him one year to pay back a £100,000 confiscation order.

To date, Mr Mooney has paid back

around £97,000 of that.

From the point of view of a result, it's an excellent result for us.

It means that £100,000

of money is confiscated from a criminal,

that they don't then benefit from their crime.

That money is returned to the public purse.

And Mr Mooney, on his release from prison,

doesn't benefit at all from the years of criminality

that he's been engaged in.

So it just demonstrates that if the DWP

have anything to say about it,

in the long run, crime won't pay.

It's time to leave the tiny minority trying to cheat the system

and turn our attention to those who really need help.

Sickle cell sufferer Ade was finding it hard to cope

with an unpredictable condition

which made it difficult for him to work

when, like most sufferers, all he wanted to do

was live a normal life and earn a living.

With the sufferers that you've met,

do they generally, um,

want the same things everyone else wants?

Yes. Oh, yes, oh, yes.

They want relationships, they want to go about

doing their daily activities like anyone else.

They'd like to go out to work.

Even though they are having pains, they would like to go out there and work.

Sickle cell does not prevent you from achieving your goals in life.

So most of them do as much as they can.

Some of them are IT consultants, some of them doctors, they are nurses.

The difficulty they face is that most employers cannot keep them for long,

because when they are in crisis, it might take one or two weeks in hospital.

And not turning up for work,

always in pain.

They feel that they are just giving excuses,

there's nothing wrong with them,

because sickle is invisible.

It's not something you can see physically,

so people do not understand

when somebody with sickle cell is in pain,

they are really sick and they are really in pain.

Ade needed to work to pay his bills,

so he managed to get a job as a security officer.

But it was a two-hour journey from his home.

It was not the job I wanted.

It was not the stuff I wanted. And it was cold, it was winter.

And there was one incident that happened.

I was having a crisis. I was having one of those minor crises that I...

I couldn't really manage

and I had to go home.

And I told my manager that I'm having a crisis -

please can I go home?

He said if I go home,

your job is not going to be here for you again.

Because I was desperate - I needed money to survive,

I needed money to eat, I needed money to pay my electricity bill

and stuff like that -

I didn't go home. I just stayed there.

Because I didn't want to lose the job.

When he made that statement, I was very...

disgusted.

My blood was boiling inside.

I felt like there's no-one who understands what I'm going through right now.

I don't know what happened to me that day.

Something just told me to write...

that song that was coming to my head.

Writing the song helped Ade deal with his feelings of frustration,

but he really needed practical support.

Having heard about his predicament, a specialist nurse

put him in touch with the Sickle Cell Society.

It was here that we met Iyamide Thomas.

I first met Ade...

I think it was 2007. He was referred to me

because he was having crises and he needed help.

As part of her job, Iyamide visited Ade at home.

When I did the home visit, I did notice that he didn't have a proper bed.

His mattress was on the floor.

So, financially, I don't think Ade was very financially secure when I met him.

And I don't think he was getting some of the benefits

that he could have applied for.

Iyamide helped him to access a welfare fund,

which provided him with a new bed.

She also encouraged him to apply for Disability Living Allowance.

But at first, his applications were unsuccessful.

This happens a lot for those with sickle cell,

as it's a hard condition to define.

So, the forms are there to describe a permanent condition,

-but with sickle cell, what you're talking about is something that comes and goes.

-Yes.

And so that makes the form quite difficult.

Difficult for them to fill out, yes,

because their condition fluctuates.

It's unpredictable. One minute you are OK.

The next minute... What do you say?

You say on the form, "Today I feel OK.

"I was able to do this for myself."

The next minute on the next form, you say you can't even get up when you're in crisis.

You can't do anything for yourself.

It was a frustrating time for Ade,

and he told Iyamide about the song he'd written, Feel My Pain.

I then thought that's very good, and we're going to do something with Feel My Pain.

And I then helped to

try and get a grant from one of those organisations in Lambeth.

And we got it.

And it was for him to produce Feel My Pain on CD and DVD.

And then we did a launch.

# If you could only feel my pain

# But the world is so afraid

# That it's going to take me away

# To a place I've never seen... #

Ade's song not only helped to promote the Society,

but it gave him a renewed sense of purpose.

He decided to go to university.

He graduated with a degree in film studies,

but was still struggling financially,

so the Society put him in touch with a community nurse

who helped him fill out the Disability Living Allowance application again.

This time he was successful

and it wasn't just a weekly payment.

The Disability Living Allowance mobility component

means that in certain cases, the claimant's also entitled to get help buying or leasing a car.

I've always been very pleased when I see that a client is able to

get something that would either allow them to go to this meeting or come to this workshop

or, you know, do something that doesn't tire them out.

And the fact that he got a car through that was good, that he could go out and,

you now, try and live a normal life.

Since discovering the Society, Ade's financial position has improved.

He now has the benefits to which he's entitled

and it's making his life easier.

The Society has really made me understand that there's help out there.

There's help out there if you really search for it.

Very often, young men with sickle cell,

they are very frustrated because of the way they are stereotyped and all that.

They tend maybe not to achieve as much,

but Ade has overcome that

and he's just doing his thing, you know.

Unless he's ill, you wouldn't even know he had the condition, really.

He's getting on with life.

Ade's currently working in a hospital canteen to earn some money

while he continues to pursue his dream

of working in films.

You can do whatever you dream of doing.

As long as you don't let sickle cell block it from you.

Take that off your mind and you'll get far.

It takes a lot to be able to cope with a debilitating disorder like sickle cell,

but Ade's living his life to the full

and in the process, by raising awareness through his song,

he's giving something back to the Society that's helped him so much.

# Peace and love. #

Now it's time to return to the greedy world of our devious scroungers.

Perfect Imports and Exports

was a major player in the importing of garlic.

But after they were discovered to have under-declared

the weight of a couple of their containers from suppliers in China,

they appeared to have stopped importing garlic

and moved on to ginger instead.

Customs officers were suspicious.

Believing that £1.4 million

had effectively been stolen from the public purse

through evasion of import duties,

they'd been monitoring the company's activities closely.

In April, we targeted

three containers from China,

all declared as ginger.

We were there at the port when they arrived.

We watched them be brought onto the shore

and two of them were covertly searched.

This is one of the containers.

On this picture, you can see the actual container number.

When it was opened up, in this picture,

you can see that it's literally full of garlic.

They've even tried to squeeze boxes on top to maximise

the amount they could bring in.

This is a close-up of the garlic.

But the key factor is that this container

was declared as ginger.

These containers were then returned as normal

and collected by Perfect

and delivered to their warehouse,

where they were also observed.

So, with all the Customs paperwork saying that it was ginger that was being imported,

and yet the container full to the brim with garlic,

it was time to see whether the company would willingly and voluntarily declare

there had been another mistake in the ordering.

The company would have no idea that their containers had been examined,

so they were given time to see if they would admit the error.

After all, they could genuinely have been expecting a delivery of ginger.

But after having no word for a week,

in April 2011, search warrants were issued for the offices.

The first thing they needed to establish was who was in charge.

On arrest day, my role was to speak to the director,

but the director on paper wasn't the actual director.

I then spoke to Mr Natarajan,

who declared himself as the person in charge

and the director of Perfect Imports and Exports.

He explained to us that he dealt with purchasing garlic

and other goods, and he was effectively in charge

of that side of the business,

which meant that he was the right person we needed to speak to.

And he was then cautioned and arrested.

But when Mr Natarajan was brought in for an interview under caution,

his behaviour changed.

He tried to avoid all of our questions.

He changed his story, he contradicted himself.

He couldn't explain who the boss was.

He couldn't explain who paid him.

And it went on in that vein.

Despite Mr Natarajan not being very forthcoming,

the team was gathering enough evidence to prove that he was the boss.

During the search of the business premises,

we uplifted numerous computers and documents.

The documents didn't really give us that much information,

because they were doctored, effectively.

But it was the computers that revealed the real source of great evidence for us,

which was the Skype instant messages.

The instant messages from Natarajan and the Chinese suppliers

proved to be a vital piece of information.

In front of me I have a transcript.

Natarajan says, "Have you loaded the first container of garlic?

"Please make the bill of lading as ginger.

"I have given two container this week and paid advance,

"and both should show as ginger."

This clearly shows that the Chinese suppliers were involved

and that Natarajan was able to manipulate them

to assist him mis-declare the goods on import.

But computer analysis showed that Natarajan wasn't the only player.

They discovered further instant messages to the Chinese suppliers

from one of his colleagues, a woman called Lakshmi Suresh,

which they believed proved she was also knowingly involved in the smuggling of garlic.

From a transcript, I have an example of where Lakshmi Suresh

is messaging the Chinese suppliers

and she says, "18 tonnes, can you show?"

And the Chinese supplier replies,

"Yes, it is OK, but, dear,

"it is too risky for all 18 tonnes. We worried they will discover."

This was enough evidence for them to bring in Suresh

for an interview under caution.

Lakshmi Suresh was quite evasive during the interview.

She didn't give us any information.

Even when we asked about her email address, she denied that she had an email address,

even though there was an email address in her name, for example.

We believe that she was under instructions by Mr Natarajan

to basically not give us any other information.

Once they were confident it was Natarajan pulling all the strings,

a warrant was issued to search his house.

We wanted to search Natarajan's home address,

because we believed that there was potential evidence there.

We found up to £150,000-worth of cash

hidden in different places,

as well as a cash-counting machine.

That's a lot of cash lying around.

The investigators were happy that they had enough evidence

to charge both Natarajan and Suresh.

Suresh pleaded guilty in November 2012

and was given a 12-month suspended sentence

and ordered to pay £10,000 compensation.

Natarajan was still maintaining his innocence

and continued working.

For his business, he's been to China. He went to different parts of the world

to maybe source goods.

But we had no concerns about his bail conditions,

based on the fact that he attended all of the court hearings.

We had lots of contact with him via his solicitor,

and so there weren't any restrictions on him travelling.

The officers had no cause for concern.

But when it came round to Natarajan's day in court in December,

he didn't turn up.

Stuck in traffic? Running late?

No.

He'd skipped the country.

That didn't stop the team prosecuting him,

and the court case was held in his absence.

The prosecution led the jury through our evidence,

which was presented to the judge,

and the jury came back and made their decision,

giving Natarajan six years' imprisonment.

Six years is one of the longest sentences handed out

for this type of crime in recent years.

100 containers from Perfect Imports and Exports

had been identified as either being understated or wrongly described,

equalling around £2 million in unpaid Customs duties.

In terms of the case itself, it was a success.

We stopped the smuggling

and we dealt with the individuals.

For Mr Natarajan, one day there will be a knock on his door.

As for the money, HMRC has £150,000 of Natarajan's money

that they seized from his house,

as well as the £10,000 that Suresh paid in compensation.

Evasion of Customs duty like this is a serious matter.

We're looking at sums of money in the millions

that should have been paid to the Exchequer.

Failure to pay that money

means that the money isn't available to be spent

on public works, schools, hospitals and so forth.

It is a serious matter,

and the sentence that Mr Natarajan was handed down by the court reflects that.

But they're not going to let it rest there.

He's still on their Most Wanted list.

And they're confident that one day he'll be made to pay.

If anybody does have any information about where Natarajan is,

it's really important they contact us,

because he should be serving the time that he's been sentenced to.

So it turns out there is a big difference between ginger and garlic.

Ginger...they call the root of life.

Whereas garlic, if you fail to pay your import duty on it,

can be the route to a prison sentence.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd