Three men have been jailed for a total of more than 7 years for smuggling cigarettes. A fourth man was sentenced to a 15-month community order, 200 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay costs of £1,200. The ringleader of the gang was caught with more than nine million illegal cigarettes and £356,185 in cash when HMRC officers raided an industrial unit in Wellingborough last September.

The gang used a local car park as a base to meet customers and take payment, before collecting goods from the unit. They were caught after being found acting suspiciously in the car park and eventually led officers to the unit full of cigarettes and cash hidden in cupboards and carrier bags.

Simon Kiefer, Assistant Director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said:

'The gang, led by Cretu, was aiming to undercut legitimate retailers with this large quantity of smuggled cigarettes. Cretu thought his scam would go unnoticed and he could flood the UK streets with millions of pounds worth of illegal goods, but he was wrong. The money they pocketed was equivalent to the salaries of 167 trainee firefighters in the East Midlands.'

HMRC encourages anyone with information about tobacco fraud to report it to HMRC online or to contact the Fraud Hotline on 0800 788 887.

Source: New feed