A gang of men who smuggled millions of illegal cigarettes into the UK to evade £1 million in duty tax has been jailed for a total of 10 years.
Pawel Szymanski, 33, of Cann Hall Road, Leytonstone, was among six smugglers who hid the tobacco in pallets of floor underlay before being caught red-handed.
Officers from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) made the astonishing discovery at a storage facility in Darwen, Lancashire, where they found more than 3.7 million Richmond, L&M and Brass band cigarettes stuffed into the wooden pallets.
Szymanski was today (September 27, 2018) sentenced at Preston Crown Court to 22 months in prison along with Lukas Adasiewicz, 32, of Pinner.
Fellow smugglers Lukasz Zwierz, 31, of Uxbridge, and Batosz Duzak, 29, of Perivale were each sentenced to 20 months.
Ellis Varey, 26, of Darwen, was handed a two-and-a-half year sentence and Chetan Mawji, 36, of Bolton, was imprisoned for six months.
The court heard how investigators found Szymanski, Adasiewicz and Zwierz loading laundry bags full of cigarettes into a hire van at the Premier Mill industrial unit in Begonia Street, Darwen, on January 16.
Powel Szymanski
Varey and Duzak were caught at the back of the unit pulling out boxes of cigarettes from the pallets and loading them into bags.
Bartosz Duszak
Mawji had been seen earlier driving the hire van and was arrested shortly after in a car park.
Chetan Mawji
Tony Capon, assistant director at the HMRC’s fraud investigation service, said: “This was a blatant attempt to smuggle millions of cigarettes into the UK.
Ellis Varey
“This gang thought they were being clever by hiding illicit tobacco within flooring packs, but our investigators were one step ahead.
“We are determined to create a level playing for businesses who honestly pay their taxes.
Lukas Adasiewicz
"I urge anyone with information about the trade in smuggled or counterfeit tobacco to contact us online or call our Fraud Hotline on 0800 788 887.”
Lukasz Zwierz
All six men were charged with fraudulently evading excise duty and admitted the crime except Varey, who was convicted at Preston Crown Court on July 19, 2018.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel