From: Sounthend Standard
A TAXI driver who attempted to smuggle over 3.6 million counterfeit cigarettes into Tilbury has been jailed.
Baljinder Singh, 42, was caught transferring cigarettes from a sea container into two vans at the Thames Industrial Estate, on Princess Margaret Road.
Singh, of Gillingham, Kent was found guilty of evading around £925,000 in excise duty and VAT on Friday, May 17 after a six week trial at Ipswich Crown Court. He was jailed for five years on Thursday, June 20.
Upon sentencing, His Honour Judge Holt, said: “This was a sophisticated smuggling operation and you were involved well before the cigarettes arrived in the country.”
An investigation uncovered an innocent company’s details had been used as a cover for the load, but instead of being delivered to Ipswich the pallets were diverted to an industrial unit in Tilbury.
Five other men were found not guilty after the trial. The cigarettes have been destroyed.
Paul Barton, Assistant Director of Criminal Investigation, for HM Revenue and Customs, who carried out the investigation, said: “If this illegal operation had not been stopped millions of potentially dangerous counterfeit cigarettes would have reached the UK’s streets.”
