Tea scammer dubbed ‘Tetley Tam' given £50k government grant before £500k swindle
IN THE BAG
IN THE BAG Tea scammer dubbed 'Tetley Tam' given £50k government grant before £500k swindle
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A TEA conman dubbed Tetley Tam fooled a Scottish Government-backed quango into handing him £50,000.
Thomas Robinson, 55, swindled the start-up grant to help build his fraudulent plantation.
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Thomas Robinson before he was jailed last week
Credit: Central Scotland News Agency
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He sold the tea to luxury hotels
Credit: Alamy
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Robinson's victims between 2014 and 2019 included Edinburgh's Balmoral Hotel
Credit: Getty
We told how he was jailed for 3½ years last week for duping luxury hotels into buying his premium 'Scottish-grown' bought on the cheap from Italy.
The fantasist even claimed one brand 'produced' on his Perthshire estate was 'the Queen's favourite'.
Now it has emerged Robinson — who brewed up his brazen £550,000 fraud over five years — convinced Scottish Edge to give him a mix of taxpayers and corporate cash to get his dodgy business off the ground.
The crook, who claimed in court to have invented the supermarket bag for life and worked for ex-US President Barack Obama's administration, hoodwinked the selection panel with lies.
One source said last night: 'He had no shame.'
Scottish Edge helps entrepreneurs funded by the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Hunter Foundation.
Robinson was awarded the money in 2015 after pitching his The Wee Tea Plantation to judges.
The quango's website has an image of him posing and says: 'Winner…The Wee Tea Plantation Limited — £50,000.
'Scotland's only tea plantation which counts Kensington Palace as customers.'
Stirling Sheriff Court heard Robinson's victims included Edinburgh's Balmoral Hotel.
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He also flogged 22,000 plants bought for £3 to Scots growers for £12.50 each.
Scottish Edge has been asked for comment.
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