Latest news with #CamelliaSinesis
The Courier
29-05-2025
- The Courier
The Great Scottish Tea Blag — Perthshire businessman guilty of £550k tea firm fraud
A Perthshire businessman who claimed to have created the Queen's favourite brew at 'Scotland's first tea plantation' has been convicted of an elaborate £550k fraud. Thomas Robinson – better known as Tam O'Braan – made up awards and qualifications to blag sales from some of the country's top hotels and stores including the Dorchester, the Balmoral and Fortnum and Mason. The father-of-four also duped growers from around Scotland into buying Camellia Sinesis tea plants from his remote facility in the hills of Amulree, south of Aberfeldy. In reality, the crops were purchased wholesale from a plantation in northern Italy. Other plants were used to decorate a 0.3 acre 'kitchen garden' at this farm ahead of visits from potential buyers. Robinson bought these 'show plants' from esteemed tea vendors in the UK, and even demanded one sign a non-disclosure agreement to keep his sales a secret. The 55-year-old's too-good-to-be-brew story sensationally unspooled following a three-year investigation by Food Standards Scotland and a four-week jury trial at Falkirk Sheriff Court. Robinson – who once told the press 'call me Mr Tea' – was remanded in custody and told jail will be 'inevitable.' The jury deliberated overnight for six-and-a-half hours before returning unanimous guilty verdicts to two charges of forming a fraudulent scheme over a period of more than four years. Sheriff Keith O'Mahony told Robinson: 'The jury have convicted you of two very serious charges, with a total combined value of between half-a-million-pounds and £600,000. 'There will be significant sentencing consequences for you.' Robinson will also face proceeds of crime action to claw back his ill-gotten funds. He showed little emotion as he was led out of the dock in handcuffs but could be seen shaking his head as the jury delivered its verdict. Claims Robinson's tea was grown in Scotland using some kind of miracle plastic sheeting sparked a media buzz, helping to secure sales with high end customers. Michelin star chef Jeff Bland of Edinburgh's Balmoral Hotel was among those who were tricked into buying it. Between November 2014 and February 2019, Robinson's Wee Tea Plantation made £84,124 selling nearly 460kg of loose leaf tea to the Balmoral for its Palm Court menu. Mr Bland, known as Jeff the Chef who referred to Robinson as Tam the Man, told the trial he would not have bought the tea if he knew it was not Scottish. Similarly Robinson sold £54,648 of tea to the Dorchester, £39,875 to Fortnum and Mason and £32,878 to gourmet tea company Mariage Freres. Robinson also duped Jamie Russell and Derek Walker of Fife's Wee Tea Company, who agreed to package and sell his teas, again believing they had been grown at Dalreoch. Between 2014 and 2018, he sold £67,109 to the Wee Tea Company. Robinson was further convicted of defrauding 12 individual buyers – 11 in Scotland and one from Jersey – out of £274,354. Suspicions started to grow around 2016 when, on the back of press reports, Perth and Kinross Council investigated Dalreoch to see the scale of the operation for itself, only to be told production was carried out in Fife. A subsequent probe by Fife Council found this was not true. At the same time, people who had bought plants from Robinson were surprised to find their own teas listed on The Balmoral menu. Food Standards Scotland, set up in the wake of the horse meat scandal, was tasked to investigate. As the probe progressed, the teas were yanked from hotel menus and Robinson's contract with the Wee Tea Company was terminated. During the trial, it emerged Robinson made up outrageous claims about his product, telling one customer it was the Queen's favourite tea. His tall tales including signing a contract with President Barrack Obama's US administration for crop trials, deals with Kensington Palace and playing and coaching rugby for several well-known clubs. Robinson, most recently working as a chef at Taymouth Castle, claimed to have invented a 'unique' plastic sheeting that allowed his tea plants to grow at record-breaking speeds. He fabricated awards, including the prestigious-sounding Salon de Thé prize, to boost his company's profile. He pretended to be former employee Lindsay Deuchars, using her old email address without permission to communicate with customers and media – usually when trying to avoid troublesome questions – signing off messages with 'Lins x'. Robinson tried to explain he had a four-and-a-half acre plot near his land which was used to grow thousands of tea plants. The land, he said, had been leased from a shepherd but he could not remember his name. No one who visited Dalreoch – such as potential buyers and investors – was shown this land. Robinson struggled to explain how he claimed 70,000 plants had been removed from the four-and-a-half acre plot, when he had earlier said he grew plants at a rate of about 1,000 per acre. He said the plants and all the equipment at Dalreoch had been moved to Ireland, because he was quitting Scotland after Perth and Kinross Council gave funding to a competitor. But he said he could not produce photos of the plants and equipment sitting in Ireland because he had been let down by an IT guy called Mike, whose surname he could not remember. Prosecutor Joanne Ritchie told jurors: 'This was a scheme to deceive, a scheme to make money on the basis of lies. 'This man has lied to every single witness who encountered him. 'But more than that, he lied to the public at large.' She said Robinson made himself out to be a 'knowledgeable and credible person,' while exploiting a gap in the market but urged jurors to reject his testimony entirely, branding it 'absurd.' Defence advocate Colin Neilson KC urged jurors to acquit his client, even if they had suspicious about his business practices and his tendency to 'big himself up' to others. Giving evidence at his trial, Robinson said he was 'proud' of his achievements. 'This is what I consider to be my life's work,' he said. 'This will stand in the history of tea.' Robinson said he felt 'injured and hurt,' but also 'annoyed and angry' by the allegations. 'The first time I've heard the evidence is here, at the same time as the jury,' he said. The case represent a significant win for the Food Standards Scotland's crime and incident unit. Ron McNaughton, who heads up the department, said: 'This was a highly complex and protracted investigation which required a significant amount of time, expertise and coordination across our team with partner agencies.' He added: 'This is not a victimless crime – individuals, businesses and an emerging sector of genuine Scottish tea growers suffered real financial and reputational harm as a result of deliberate deception.'
The Courier
29-05-2025
- Business
- The Courier
Thursday court round-up — £36k cash grab from kids charity swindler
A woman jailed for stealing thousands of pounds from a children's charity and a family-run coffee firm in Fife has been ordered to repay more than £36,000 under Proceeds of Crime laws. In January 2025, , 37, was sentenced to 20 months in prison after she admitted embezzling a total of £96,371 from Kids Come First and vending firm Myrtle Coffee in Kirkcaldy. At Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court, a confiscation order for £36,036.50 was made, to be paid in six months. Further assets can be seized in future if they become available to Bennie. Sineidin Corrins, Deputy Procurator Fiscal for Specialist Casework at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said: 'Beverley Bennie was convicted of crimes that displayed a betrayal of trust by someone who had financial oversight of funds from a children's charity and a family business. 'She showed no regard for the impact her crimes would have on vulnerable children or the effect it would have on those trying to run an honest business. 'We take such criminality very seriously. This confiscation order shows that the Crown will not stop at prosecution. 'These funds will be added to those already gathered from Proceeds of Crime and will be re-invested in Scottish communities through the CashBack for Communities programme.' Bennie had been a business manager with Myrtle Coffee, which supplies wholesale coffee and vending services and was responsible for petty cash and an electronic cash account. Cash was found to be missing from the safe and during an audit, it was revealed Bennie had carried out numerous fraudulent transactions between September 2017 and September 2023, totalling £83,599.93. The court was also told that in 2018, Bennie took on the role of treasurer with Kids Come First, a charity based at the Benarty Centre in Ballingry. In 2021, it was revealed the charity had limited cash reserves and some staff members could not be paid. Fife Council instructed a forensic accountant to investigate and unauthorised cash transfers totalling £12,771.69 by accused between December 2020 and September 2021 were discovered. A Perthshire businessman who claimed to have created the Queen's favourite brew at 'Scotland's first tea plantation' has been convicted of an elaborate £550k fraud. – better known as Tam O'Braan – made up awards and qualifications to blag sales from some of the country's top hotels and stores including the Dorchester, the Balmoral and Fortnum and Mason. The father-of-four also duped growers from around Scotland into buying Camellia Sinesis tea plants from his remote facility in the hills of Amulree, south of Aberfeldy. In reality, the crops were purchased wholesale from a plantation in northern Italy. Read details of the amazing trial here. A habitual thief stole a £900 drill from a Perth industrial store. , 33, appeared at Perth Sheriff Court to be sentenced for the theft, as well as hits at three city Co-ops. He stole £63 worth of alcohol from the Tulloch store on March 16 last year, groceries and cigarettes worth £143 from the North Muirton branch three days later and cigarettes worth £242 from the Letham store the following day. On April 8 last year, he stole the drill from Highland Industrial Supplies at the city's Inveralmond Industrial estate. Prosecutor Elizabeth Hodgson said the accused would enter the Co-ops and pretend he was buying the items. When his card declined, he would just leave with the items. When he stole the drill by exploiting the 'on-tick type of purchasing,' Blyth was working as a plumber and was known to staff. Solicitor Lyndsey Barber said: 'He's taken steps – not just lip service.' Blyth, of Nimmo Place, was placed on a six-month curfew by Sheriff Clair McLachlan at Perth Sheriff Court. She said: 'You're sailing close to the custodial wind.' A pair of undercover police officers thwarted a Dundee paedophile's attempts to groom children on social media. , 40, sent a string of nauseating messages to two profiles he believed were an underage boy and girl. A creep who believed he was talking to a child bombarded an undercover police officer with a slew of sexual messages. , 35, is now a registered sex offender after he admitted trying to indecently communicate with a child for more than two months from his Fife home. Dundee Sheriff Court was told how Kerr thought he was talking to a 14-year-old girl on the adult chat room site Chat Avenue. The 'girl's' profile picture included a photo of her in school uniform, with her age clearly stated in the biography. Fiscal depute Stewart Duncan said Kerr 'went into in-depth descriptions' of sexual abuse he wished to carry out on the child. Kerr, of Crossgate, Cupar, pled guilty to repeatedly sending messages of a sexual nature and making reference to sexual activity while trying to communicate indecently with a child between November 25 2024 and January 28 this year. Sheriff Alastair Carmichael deferred sentencing on Kerr until next month for a social work report to be prepared and made him subject to the sex offenders register on an interim basis. A Perthshire chef has been jailed for historical sexual abuse. Thomas McPhee, the former head chef and manager at the Red Brolly Inn in Ballinluig, has been imprisoned for 58 weeks after admitting offences against two teenagers in the mid-2000s.
The Independent
05-02-2025
- Health
- The Independent
How switching your coffee for green tea may help prevent dementia
While coffee is not without its health benefits, a recent Japanese study has found that green tea is superior for helping reduce the risk of dementia in older people. The researchers looked at older people with coffee and tea drinking habits and found a 'significant association' between those who drank more green tea and lower cerebral white matter lesions - which are linked with vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease. The study published in NPJ Science of Food looked at the data of about 10,000 older Japanese people who were involved in an ongoing observational study on dementia. The participants had undergone MRI scans and filled out dietary surveys. The researchers said high blood pressure (hypertension) was considered to be the 'most important risk factor' for those lesions, and green tea has been reported to reduce blood pressure. Green tea also has less caffeine per cup than coffee, which may also help, the researchers said. 'Green tea consumption may contribute to white matter lesion reduction by improving blood pressure,' they added. 'Moreover, green tea contains less caffeine than coffee, which negatively affects blood pressure, thus suggesting that green tea may have a more beneficial impact on white matter lesions.' A separate study recently found that drinking coffee in the morning could have more health benefits than drinking it throughout the day, including a reduced risk of heart disease and death. Green tea is made from the leaves and buds of the Camellia Sinesis plant and contains antioxidants, vitamins and minerals as well as caffeine. A cup of green tea typically contains 25-45mg of caffeine. Coffee, made from the seeds of a wide variety of coffee plants, also contains antioxidants. Depending on how it is brewed can contain about 100mg of caffeine. The researchers stressed the study had limitations: 'First, we only investigated green tea and coffee intake when consumed as beverages and did not account for the amount contained in snacks. 'Importantly, there was also no information on how green tea was brewed, leading to potential variations in the content of bioactive substances.' The researchers added the study only focused on the drinking habits of Japanese individuals, so it was not clear whether similar trends could be observed in other countries. 'In conclusion, this study revealed that increased green tea consumption was associated with reduced cerebral white matter lesions,' the researchers said. 'Given that cerebral white matter lesions are closely related to vascular dementia and AD, our findings indicate that drinking green tea, especially three or more glasses per day, may help prevent dementia. 'Nevertheless, further prospective longitudinal studies and basic research are needed to validate our results.'
