{"id":856461,"date":"2025-06-18T19:13:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T00:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/18\/fraudster-conned-hotels-out-of-more-than-500k-by-selling-fake-scottish-tea\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T19:13:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T00:13:00","slug":"fraudster-conned-hotels-out-of-more-than-500k-by-selling-fake-scottish-tea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/18\/fraudster-conned-hotels-out-of-more-than-500k-by-selling-fake-scottish-tea\/","title":{"rendered":"Fraudster conned hotels out of more than £500k by selling fake Scottish tea"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A man has been found guilty of fraud totalling almost \u00a3600,000 after he passed off ordinary tea as a premium product grown in Scotland.<\/p>\n

Thomas Robinson, 52, claimed the tea was a unique variety he had grown at his Perthshire estate using innovative techniques.<\/p>\n

Operating as The Wee Tea Plantation, he then fraudulently sold it to high-profile clients in the hospitality sector, including luxury hotels and retailers, between January 2014 and February 2019.<\/p>\n

Varieties listed on the website – which touted partnerships with train operator Caledonian Sleeper and the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh – include Dalreoch White, Silver Needles, Scottish Antlers Tea, and Highland Green.<\/p>\n

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Also known as Tam O’Braan and Thomas O’Brien, Robinson was found to have misled genuine Scottish tea growers by selling them plants he falsely claimed were a unique, locally-grown variety.<\/p>\n

He also bolstered his credibility by fabricating academic qualifications and industry awards.<\/p>\n

An investigation by Food Standards Scotland (FSS) found Robinson’s misrepresentations led to his clients losing a total of \u00a3584,783.<\/p>\n

He was found guilty of two counts of fraud by a jury at Falkirk Sheriff Court on Thursday, and is due to be sentenced at Stirling Sheriff Court on 25 June.<\/p>\n

Read more from Scotland:
UK’s oldest polar bear euthanised<\/a>
Abusive foster carer forced boy to eat cat food<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In a statement, Ron McNaughton, head of Scottish food crime and incidents unit at FSS, said: “This was 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.”<\/p>\n

He then thanked a witness who came forward and added: “Fraud of this nature is often difficult to detect and even harder to prove, but we were determined to pursue every line of inquiry to build the strongest possible case.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Arden Fleishman
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A man has been found guilty of fraud totalling almost \u00a3600,000 after he passed off ordinary tea as a premium product grown in Scotland. Thomas Robinson, 52, claimed the tea was a unique variety he had grown at his Perthshire estate using innovative techniques. Operating as The Wee Tea Plantation, he then fraudulently sold it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":856462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44332,69739],"tags":[144707,101798],"class_list":{"0":"post-856461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-conned","8":"category-fraudster","9":"tag-conned","10":"tag-fraudster"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}