A 54-year-old oil company accountant was formally cleared yesterday by a Belfast jury of smuggling 2 1/2 million litres of diesel from the Republic. Crown Court Judge Patrick Markey told the jury to find Mr Dan Rice "not guilty by direction" after the prosecution offered no evidence on the 85 charges, which he denied.
Mr Rice, from Derrycraw Road, Newry, faced 81 smuggling charges, three of VAT evasion and one of false accounting between August 1994 and May the following year.
On Monday his company boss, 38-year-old Hugh Morgan, from Dublin Road, Newry, was given an 18-month suspended sentence after the court heard he had paid half a million pounds in excise duties and VAT owed on smuggled oil. Mr Morgan, who pleaded guilty to the smuggling charges was ordered to pay £25,OOO towards prosecution costs.