Revealed: Dale Farm has gone Down Under (From Echo)

Revealed: Dale Farm has gone Down Under

1:00pm Tuesday 7th October 2008 in

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TRAVELLERS from Crays Hill have expanded their business interests...in Australia.

Travellers from the illegal Dale Farm are working with relatives from their spiritual home of Rathkeale, Ireland, selling electrical goods door-to-door Down Under.

The Echo has discovered a group of up to 50 of the Sheridan Clan have been in Australia for a number of weeks.

A Dale Farm source said: “This is the first time they have travelled so far in connection with work. It is pretty adventurous.

“Some have returned, but some are still out there.”

The visit has made headlines in Australia, with Consumer Affairs Minister Gail Gago warning the public to be aware of “questionable” traders and not to purchase the goods.

She said: “The latest reports are of traders driving around the Adelaide Hills and regional areas offering to sell generators, high- pressure cleaners and other equipment.”

The clan have previously worked extensively on the Continent, including running driveway businesses in France, Germany and Spain, selling electrical goods in Iceland and importing furniture from Poland.

The group – made up of Irish and British passport holders – have been monitored by Australian officials amid fears they were selling dangerous or counterfeit goods, and breaching visa conditions which ban working.

In total, 22 men, 13 with UK addresses, and the rest Irish nationals, were detained by police and immigration officials last month following a raid on a StorageKing warehouse in Durack, Brisbane, Queensland, on suspicion of immigration offences. They had been selling items delivered to the warehouse door-to-door in hired vans.

It is not clear if these men have Crays Hill addresses. At least three then left the country, while 11 others had their visas cancelled. Late last month, authorities began tracking members of the group selling suspect electrical equipment, who made their way to South Australia.

Police, consumer affairs and immigration officials described the gang as highly organised and selling potentially dangerous equipment, such as generators and high-pressure cleaners.

Mount Gambier police in South Australia interviewed three of the sellers – all on limited-entry visas.

The men were trying to sell generators and a pressure cleaner and their visas were revoked.