Bhangra singer Davinder Dhaliwal, from Kent (UK), known as ‘Benny Dhaliwal’ has been imprisoned

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"I have been sentenced to 16 months in prison"

Bhangra singer Davinder Dhaliwal, from Kent (UK), known as ‘Benny Dhaliwal’ has been imprisoned for 16 months for taking part in a £50 million per year alcohol tax evasion scam.

Benny Dhaliwal, aged 32, who’s recent track called ‘Remember’ at number 10 in the current Asian music download charts was part of a four man gang involved with the fraud. Kevin Burrage aged 49, from Essex, was given for 10 years; Gary Clarke aged 55, from Essex was given six years and nine months and Michael Turner aged 52 from Kent was sentenced three years.

Davinder released his album called ‘Va Vai Va’ produced by Aman Hayer on the Moviebox label in November 2011 and prior to that he released tracks like ‘De De Dil’ his debut song and his hits ‘Nach Le’ and ‘Aaj Nachna’ which made him popular in the UK Bhangra scene.

Davinder of Langdale Gardens in Dartford, also known for his sports activities, especially, the Asian sport, Kabaddi, was familiar in the community for his ‘lavish’ life style, including owning luxury cars. This lifestyle was notably being funded by the crime behind the scenes of illegal alcohol trading, major tax evasion and aiming dupe the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

Davinder took part in the scam which involved using a chain Burrage’s bonded warehouses (trading as Promptstock Ltd.) to allow licensed traders to import and export large quantities of alcohol using a method called a ‘duty suspension’ where alcohol can be stored and moved between bonded warehouses without the need to pay excise tax. However, the excise duty becomes payable when the alcohol is released to retailers in the host country of the warehouses, which is what the men evaded.

Beer, wine and spirits were bought by the gang from bonded warehouses in France and imported duty-free into the UK. Once through UK Customs, the alcohol was then diverted illegally to locations around the country, where it was sold on without any tax being added to the imports.

The documentation created by the for the scam trade was falsified and included ‘ghost’ lorries and duplicate shipments creating an impression of trading that was actually not real. Kevin Burrage’s brother-in-law, Gary Clarke managed the Promptstock Ltd. warehouse which evaded the tax.