Australia’s largest ATM supplier to remove machines from suspected illegal tobacco stores

ABC NEWS (Australia)

One of Australia’s largest private ATM suppliers is removing machines from suspected illegal tobacco stores. It comes after an ABC investigation revealed that ATM companies were helping to fuel the illicit tobacco trade.

Transcript

00:00Well the CEO of Next Payments, a privately owned ATM company which is backed by the Macquarie

00:08Bank Group said that he was unaware of the extent of these issues until that ABC investigation.

00:15That investigation revealed that these ATMs were fuelling the at times violent illegal

00:20tobacco trade and they were doing this as the outlets were pushing their customers to

00:25pay with cash when they were purchasing contraband products directing them to in-store ATMs to

00:32withdraw cash instead of using card. Experts say that this could facilitate money laundering and

00:39also tax avoidance as well as a result of that ABC investigation around 40 ATMs will now be removed.

00:48That ABC story also revealed that Next Payments continued to supply an ATM

00:54to a convicted criminal despite them being found guilty of the illegal possession of tobacco

01:00which was in cat food packages. The illicit tobacco trade across the country is booming given the

01:07rising taxes on the products. To give you some insight around 20 illegal cigarettes can cost

01:13around $8 but the commonwealth duties alone from reputable providers is around $28.

01:20The CEO of Next Payments said that the ABC story really exposed how fast spread this issue was and stated

01:30that if these stores would continue to supply illegal products they would not continue to service them.

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