Former Preston shisha cafe owner Majid Jabal jailed for $2.75m tobacco smuggling racket
A Preston shisha cafe owner plotted to smuggle more than three tonnes of tobacco worth $2.75 million via the Melbourne docks but the racket went up in smoke thanks to some eagle-eyed work by border authorities.
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A dodgy shisha cafe owner who tried to save himself a bit of cash by smuggling in more than three tonnes of tobacco via Melbourne’s docks has been jailed.
Majid Jabal, 52, was sentenced in the County Court on Friday to 15 months’ jail after pleading guilty to importing tobacco with the intention of defrauding the revenue.
Jabal was nabbed after Australian Border Force officers seized 3245kg of ‘Al Fakher’ molasses tobacco that arrived at the Port of Melbourne on July 23, 2017.
Officers discovered the tobacco concealed behind a fake wall after examining and X-raying the container.
The court heard the tobacco had a duty rate of $771.60 a kilo and was worth $2,754,226 to the Commonwealth.
The tobacco was bound for Amsterdam Import, a company investigators linked to Jabal and his Preston shisha cafe via emails, business records and CCTV.
Jabal was arrested at his Thomastown home in March 2018.
Investigators raided Jabal’s Bell St shisha cafe next month but the business — which operated behind a hand car wash — had already closed.
Officers seized multiple open and partially used Al-Fakher packets and containers at the abandoned business which mysteriously closed down in January 2018.
Jabal denied owning the cafe but admitted that he “occasionally went there” but not often because he “preferred to smoke cigarettes rather than shisha”.
Jamal also denied knowledge of the tobacco claiming he had agreed to share of the cost importing glass which he had “sourced from a friend in the United Arab Emirates”.
The matter was set for a trial but resolved after Jamal pleaded guilty earlier this year.
Charges against a second man were withdrawn.
The court heard Jamal arrived in Australia after fleeing Iraq via Jordan.
The father, who had worked as police officer, spent time in jail following the first Gulf War.
Jamal has a criminal history since arriving in Melbourne which includes priors for drug possession and obtaining a financial advantage by deception.
“The potential rewards for engaging in offending of this kind may be great and the criminality can often be difficult to detect,” Judge Michael O’Connell said.
“Accordingly, significant penalties apply because of the need to provide a real disincentive to others tempted to offend in this way …
“You were the principal in a sophisticated criminal enterprise to evade $2.75 million in duties and taxes.
“It is true that there is no direct evidence as to what you stood to gain beyond the evasion of those taxes, but it can be readily inferred that you calculated that the risk you took in committing this offence was worth your while.”
Jamal was sentenced for 2 years and 9 months but will be released after 15 months with an order to be of good behaviour for the balance of his sentence.
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