A car pulled over for speeding led to a huge cigarette scam bust after more than 110kg of tobacco on the back seat
Araz Rasul, 38, was the passenger in an uninsured car owned by Dana Kadir from Runcorn, when it was stopped on the M5 in May 2016.
On the back seat officers found a whopping 147.5 kg of illegal tobacco, worth £30,000 in lost duty and taxes.
HMRC tracked down 42-year-old Kadir as the car's owner and found another 112.20 kg of tobacco and 68,300 cigarettes in two vans parked outside his Oldham home.
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In total Rasul, from Gloucester and three of his accomplices had an illegal tobacco and cigarette haul weighing more than 250kg - the equivalent of two baby elephants - and worth more than £73,000.
Fingerprints of Soleman Hossein, 36, from Rochdale, were found inside both vans, and forensic examination of the tobacco discovered in the car also revealed the fingerprints of Kheder Howkar Hasan, 31, from Gloucester.
Tracey Noon, Assistant Director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said: “These men contrived to evade paying duty which is money needed to fund public services. The amount they failed to pay is the equivalent of the starting salary for three nurses in Gloucester.
“Cheating the system undercuts legitimate tobacco traders who play by the rules, and I urge anyone with information about tax fraud to report it to HMRC online, or call our Fraud Hotline on 0800 788 887.”
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The four men were charged with fraudulent evasion of excise duty and were sentenced yesterday (April 3).
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Kadir and Hossein were both jailed for 14 months after being found guilty after a trial at Gloucester Crown Court .
Rasul was jailed for a year and Hassan was given 200 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay costs of £800 after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing.
