Cocaine smuggling boss of London Fields Brewery held in VAT raid

 
Debt: Jules de Vere Whiteway-Wilkinson hopes to clear his confiscation order with profits from his brewery
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A convicted cocaine smuggler who runs a fashionable London brewery has been arrested on suspicion of tax evasion after a dawn raid at his home.

Former public schoolboy Jules de Vere Whiteway-Wilkinson was detained after officers from HM Revenue and Customs arrived at his house in Stoke Newington to question him about allegations that he has been failing to pay VAT at the London Fields Brewery.

Officers also raided the brewery, which Whiteway-Wilkinson has run since his release from a 12-year prison sentence imposed in 2004 for his role as the leader of a cocaine-smuggling gang that supplied drugs to celebrities and music industry figures.

Witnesses reported seeing files and other documents being taken away before a forklift truck arrived to help investigators remove equipment, stock and other items. The brewery and adjoining “tap room” temporarily closed after the raid and all five beers listed for sale on its website were described today as “out of stock”.

The arrest of Whiteway-Wilkinson, 42, comes weeks after a judge at Westminster magistrates’ court agreed to give him more time to pay a separate debt that he owes taxpayers as a result of a confiscation order imposed following his conviction.

Temporarily closed: The brewery and adjoining tap room closed after the raid

That decision followed arguments by Whiteway-Wilkinson’s lawyer that the brewery — whose ales include Hackney Hopster, Shoreditch Triangle and Love not War — was “heading towards success” and could be soon be making sufficient money to allow Whiteway-Wilkinson to repay his drug profits and interest.

That prospect could be called into question by the arrest and the tax investigation, although a spokeswoman for the brewery said: “London Fields Brewery and Jules Whiteway regret the action taken by HM Revenue and Customs. The company remains an operational and growing business.”

A HM Revenue and Customs spokeswoman said its officers had arrested a 42-year-old man on suspicion of “cheating the revenue” in respect of VAT.

'Growing business': some of the beers produced by the London Fields Brewery

In 2004, Whiteway-Wilkinson was convicted at Southwark crown court for conspiracy to supply cocaine as the leader of a four-man smuggling gang. He told his family in Devon that he was a party planner, but instead used a light aircraft to fly in drugs.

Whiteway-Wilkinson was later given a confiscation order against the proceeds of his crime. But at the recent hearing at Westminster magistrates’ court, the judge was told that interest charges had added significantly to the debt despite his repayments to date.

He faces a possible eight-year “default” sentence if he fails to repay the money and has been given time to hand over a “significant sum” by May as the court accepted that his claim that the brewery profits can clear the debt is credible.

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