CIGGIE SMUGGLING DRIVER JAILED

A PORTUGUESE lorry driver was jailed for 12 months at Lewes Crown Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to the illegal importation of 3.1 million cigarettes.

Carlos Alvaro Dias Santos, 49, of Viseu, was intercepted by Revenue and Customs officers at the inward freight controls at Newhaven ferry port on April 11.

He was driving a Portuguese-registered lorry which was listed as carrying shoes.

The cigarettes were found hidden in boxes with the load.

The revenue evaded was 550,000.

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Maria Finelli, Revenue and Customs spokesman, said: 'This is an excellent result for all honest traders.

'This sentence will serve as a deterrent to others.

'Smuggling cigarettes is not a harmless tax fiddle; it cheats the Government of revenue, and jeopardises the trading of law-abiding tobacconists.'

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