A MECHANIC has been sentenced to eight months in prison for his role in smuggling about half a tonne of tobacco.
Thirty-two-year-old Wayne Cooper, of Summer Road, Kidderminster, was one of three men who had pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to evade duty on the importation of the tobacco to the UK from France.
Company director Paul Weston, 32, of Walsall, received an identical jail term while landscape gardener John Jones, 25, of Sandy Lane, Stourport, was handed an 80-hour community punishment order.
Duty and VAT evaded on the 84 boxes of hand-rolling tobacco aboard the motor cruiser Trio, which landed at Torbay in Devon in August last year, amounted to nearly £60,000.
The tobacco was brought from Cherbourg and the vessel had been observed by both French and UK customs officers. Cooper came to meet the craft when it docked in Devon.
When it was searched, customs officers found 489 kilos of tobacco packed inside.
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