The investigation that uncovered a Scottish conman’s fake tea-growing scheme – which duped the Jersey Royal Company along with a string of other high-profile businesses – is set to be featured on a BBC documentary series tonight.
The case involving Thomas Robinson will be explored in an episode of the BBC One series Expert Witness, which looks at how specialist investigators help solve complex crimes.
Robinson was jailed for three-and-a-half years after being convicted of running a £550,000 fraudulent tea-growing scheme through his Wee Tea Plantation business.
The 55-year-old falsely claimed to be growing thousands of tea plants on a farm in Perthshire, allowing him to market them as premium “Scottish-grown” products.
In reality, the plants had been sourced cheaply from Europe before being sold on at a substantial mark-up to customers, including the Jersey Royal Company.
The fraud affecting the Jersey Royal Company took place between 2014 and 2018, before the business was sold to Albert Bartlett in 2024.
Robinson, who also used the names Thomas O’Brien and Tam O’Braan, made around £550,000 from the scam over a five-year period.
Other businesses caught up in the fraud included The Dorchester in London and the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh.
Robinson even claimed he was told the tea he supplied to The Dorchester was “the Queen’s favourite”.
A jury found him guilty of two counts of fraud following a three-week trial at Falkirk Sheriff Court before he was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison at Stirling Sheriff Court.
The investigation began after Perth and Kinross Council checked whether Robinson held a food processing licence in 2017, leading to what Food Standards Scotland described as a “highly complex and protracted investigation”.
The Expert Witness episode examining the case is due to air on BBC One at 10.45pm on Wednesday 22 July.
