The former manager of a Darwin tobacconist has avoided jail time after he was busted with hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of illegally imported tobacco.
Mohammed Aloachey pleaded guilty in the Northern Territory Supreme Court this morning to one count of possessing tobacco with intent to defraud the Commonwealth in 2024.
The court heard the 30-year-old helped organise a consignment of illegal tobacco from Victoria to Darwin through the courier service Pack & Send while managing a tobacconist in Winnellie.
Police intercepted the delivery from Victoria and found 110,000 illegally imported cigarettes. (Supplied: NT Police)
Police intercepted the delivery, seizing a total 110,000 cigarettes and 336 kilograms of loose tobacco packaged as Chinese tea.
Crown prosecutor Carolyn Moss told the court the scheme meant Aloachey evaded more than $770,000 in taxes.
Judge acknowledges community concern
The court heard Aloachey had previously been fined $5000 for tobacco-related offending in Victoria.
Aloachey’s lawyer, Jeremy Scudds, told the court his client was the child of refugee parents who travelled from Iraq to Australia in the early 2000s due to war.
Mr Scudds said Aloachey had become involved with illicit tobacco traders in Melbourne but had “distanced himself” from them since his arrest.
Jeremy Scudds (right) told the court Aloachey had “distanced himself” from illegal tobacconists in Melbourne since his arrest in Darwin. (ABC News: Olivana Lathouris)
Judge Jenny Blokland said while Aloachey’s involvement in the NT syndicate may have been relatively low-level, his willingness to take part in organised crime was concerning.
“There’s a lot of community concern [about] this style of offending because of what it leads to,” she said.
“I want Mr Aloachey to take from these proceedings that he can’t be in with these people.“
Offending breeds ‘transnational crime’
In sentencing Aloachey, Justice Blokland said his offending was a “reasonably serious example of offending of this kind”.
“Although his role was not overly sophisticated … this still took quite some setting up and planning to enable the possession of a significant amount of tobacco,” she said.
The 2024 seizure also netted 330 kg of loose tobacco intended to be sold from Aloachey’s shop front in Darwin’s west. (Supplied: NT Police)
Justice Blokland said deterring others from getting involved in the illicit tobacco trade was an important part of the sentencing process.
“Offending of this kind has a tendency to lead to broader criminal enterprises inviting larger networks, even transnational crime,” she said.
“[It] undermines the integrity of appropriate revenue raising or taxation in respect of what is acknowledged to be a dangerous yet lawful product.”
Justice Blokland sentenced Aloachey to 14 months’ prison, wholly suspended on the condition he remain of good behaviour, and warned him not to reoffend.
“Mr Aloachey, you really do need to disconnect from the people involved in this form of offending going forward,” she said.
“If you were to ever be involved in offending like this again, you would likely receive, almost automatically, a jail sentence.”
