Garlic importer hit with £500k bill

A food importer has been hit with a £500,000 tax bill for falsely declaring cargos of fresh garlic were from Cambodia. FMX Food Merchants lied about ten consignments of the pungent food flavouring to dodge tax duty. The company claimed exemption from import duties under the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences. But it emerged the garlic was from China and the HMRC issued a post-clearance demand on 1 April 2011 for duty totalling £503,577. The company, based in Tottenham, north…