Roger Gull (pictured today) has been jailed for five years today siphon off fuel worth almost £1million from the grounds of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s country residence
A businessman who orchestrated a scam to siphon off fuel worth almost £1million from the grounds of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s country residence has been jailed for five years today.
Former bankrupt Roger Gull played an imperative role in helping to set up an ‘impromptu refinery’ in farmland on the country estate of Chevening House in Sevenoaks, Kent, and then selling fuel on.
A court heard it was part of a nationwide enterprise to steal fuel worth millions of pounds from a network of nationwide underground pipelines.
The criminal operation involved drilling into high-pressured pipes and siphoning off hundreds of thousands of litres of hydrocarbon fuel.
Gull, 51, from Rainham in Essex, used a false name to rent a barn at Oveney Green Farm, part of the sprawling 3,000 acres of gardens, park and farmland of Chevening in July 2013.
At the time, the Grade II listed mansion was the government-appointed country residence of Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
Today Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is the nominated resident.
A court heard Gull claimed he was acting on behalf of a company undertaking engineering works on the nearby M25 and needed the site for storage.
However, shipping containers were moved onto the land and hidden behind a metal fence. Labourers with specialist skills and knowledge were then paid to drill into the pipelines, with the fuel siphoned off via a hydraulic hose into the containers and a waiting lorry trailer for onward distribution.
Gull paid the rent in cash and organised the vehicles to transport the fuel.
The makeshift refinery, where the fuel would also be identified and tested, was discovered when ESSO Petroleum inspectors detected a pipeline breach on August 6 2014 and found the hose, buried 2ft below ground and running for 250 metres to the compound.
The fuel siphoned from beneath Chevening was mostly red diesel, often used in the agricultural industry.
Gull was accompanied to court by a bus load of his family who saw him jailed for his today
The illicit incursion caused a further £135,000 damage to the pipeline.
Police then uncovered an elaborate network of six other incursion sites in Essex, Hampshire, Northamptonshire and Cheshire, from which petrol, diesel and aviation fuel were stolen.
Historic Kent mansion Boris Johnson calls home
Chevening House is a Grade II listed property set in a sprawling estate of gardens, parkland and farms.
The sprawling estate comprises 3,000 acres stretching between Sevenoaks and Biggin Hill in Kent.
Chevening is owned by a board of trustees but the Prime Minister can nominate either a Cabinet member or a descendant of King George VI to live in the furnished residence.
At the time of the alleged fuel theft it was the country residence Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
As Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Boris Johnson is the current nominated resident.
Married father of three Gull, who was also responsible for arranging storage, processing and distribution of the stolen fuel, was arrested in November 2014.
He denied conspiracy to steal hydrocarbon oil – the blanket term for various fuels – between June 2013 and November 2014 but was convicted by a jury at Maidstone Crown Court, Kent, in July this year.
He was also found guilty of two offences of money laundering relating to a total of £117,998 made from fuel sales between May and September 2014.
Gull, who gave evidence for six days during the six-week trial, which also saw his son, Ryan, and lorry driver employee Thomas Campbell in the dock with him, was sentenced today.
Many members of his family, including his three children and elderly parents, were present.
Judge Philip St.John-Stevens said it was a sophisticated operation, with Gull significantly involved in its planning and using the cover of his family-run businesses.
He added that as well as the theft from Chevening, Gull ‘lent himself’ to others in the wider conspiracy, having been recruited by others who were ‘encouraged’ by his expertise.
The judge told Gull: ‘Only you know the reason why and how you got involved in this conspiracy.
‘The jury found on overwhelming evidence that you were party to a larger conspiracy and you played your part.’
Confiscation proceedings will be held at a later date.
The overall value of stolen fuel coupled with the cost of repair and clean-up operations from all the incursions was said by the prosecution to run into several million pounds.
ESSO Petroleum officers searching for a potential breach of the pipeline identified an incursion on a section at Oveney Green Farm, part of the Chevening Estate (pictured)
However, Gull’s barrister Ami Feder described the figure as ‘total exaggeration’ and not supported by evidence.
At the start of the trial, prosecutor Dale Sullivan said the multi-product pipelines, which pump 350,000 litres of petroleum products per hour, were ‘compromised’ by attaching hoses fitted with pressure gauges and taps.
Initially the hoses simply ran to buckets buried beneath roadsides and fields. These were then emptied into large plastic containers and ferried away in reinforced vans.
However, after one unsuccessful theft bid caused a substantial amount of jet fuel to leak into a field in Essex, the gang switched to hiring farmland and setting up their refineries in sheds and outbuildings.
Gull, who was cleared of money laundering in respect of £26,000 found in a laundry basket, was investigated by revenue and customs officers in 2012 for operating an illegal fuel process plant where red diesel was being processed as bio fuel. A financial penalty was imposed.
Two years earlier he was declared bankrupt as a director from his series of family-run businesses making up the Rykel Group, which include trailer and van rentals, and was disqualified from holding a position of directorship for 10 years.
The business impact of his trial had been dramatic, said Mr Feder, with banks withdrawing corporate accounts and the loss of AA accreditation.
Ryan Gull, 28, also from Rainham, Essex, was found not guilty of using his position as a Rykel director to launder money from stolen fuel sales.
Campbell, 58, of Richardson Avenue, Hurlford, Kilmarnock in Scotland was cleared of conspiracy to steal.
In mitigation, Mr Feder said there was no information as to what attempts had been made by police to find others involved, and said such nationwide fuel incursions were becoming a common problem and on the rise.
‘Throughout the UK, there has been little success in identifying those responsible for the set up of incursions and the onward distribution of stolen fuel,’ he said.
‘To date, the only arrests made have been Eastern European males. It is believed that those individuals have acquired in their home countries the skill of dealing with it and this is what they are used for and to siphon the fuel.’
Chevening Estate stretches between Sevenoaks and Biggin Hill in Kent, and is owned by a board of trustees. However, the prime minister can nominate either a Cabinet member or a descendant of King George VI to live in the furnished residence.
As Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson is the current nominated resident.
The private gardens at the country house include a lake, maze, parterre and a double hexagonal walled kitchen garden amounting to approximately 40 acres.
The rest of the land is made up of farmland, parkland and 530 acres of mixed woodland.