CARPET worker Colin Angell, who is serving a jail sentence for evading duty on tobacco and alcohol, has been excused payment of £7,000 compensation to the Customs and Excise.

Angell, 54, of Oldnall Road, Kidderminster, was sentenced on August 22 to four months imprisonment on three counts of evading payment of import duty.

He had been ordered to pay £7,625 to the Customs, but magistrates have now reduced the payment to £625.

Asking Kidderminster Magistrates to re-open the case, his solicitor, Charles Hobbs, said Angell's employment at Victoria Carpets earned him a maximum, with overtime, of £190 a week.

As well as living expenses, he owed the Inland Revenue £4,000 from a period when he was self-employed.

His offer of £10 a week to settle his debt to the Customs meant he could not complete payment for 14 years.

The prison sentence was accepted as being reasonable but no-one should come out facing debts of that magnitude, said Mr Hobbs.

Customs prosecutor William Baker said Angell regularly sold cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco to workmates and had duty-free cigarettes and beer for his own use.

The compensation had been calculated on the facts before the court and Angell had offered to pay it.

Angell was not in court.