A TOBACCO smuggler who illegally imported more than 220,000 cigarettes into Hull saw his business go up in smoke when he was jailed for two years. Botan Ali, 34, ignored eight previous warnings from customs officers about his activities before he was finally prosecuted after a raid on a container in the city.
Ali had rented the container at T&H Container Storage, in Leads Road, east Hull, paying £500 cash for six months. When it was searched by customs officers in November 2012, 223,000 cigarettes were found inside.
Most had been manufactured in East Europe and excise duty had not been paid – potentially depriving the Treasury of £49,000, Hull Crown Court heard.
Ali, who had given an address in Tara Court, west Hull, when renting the container, twice returned to the premises to ask about the cigarettes after they had been seized.
When Helen Martin, who worked at the company, explained that they had been seized by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, an unidentified man who accompanied Ali asked her: "Why didn't you call him?"
Ali was later interviewed by police and claimed the cigarettes were not his and belonged to a man called "Hassan" in Warrington.
Ali, an Iraqi Kurd who moved to the UK in 2002, claimed to have met Hassan at a Kurdish community centre in Warrington and agreed to transport some boxes and bags for him and give him a lift home.
He claimed to have then forgotten to give Hassan the lift and returned to Hull with the cargo, which he could see contained cigarettes, and decided to store them in the container.
Martin Sharpe, prosecuting, said: "HMRC make it clear they do not accept the explanation about how he has all those cigarettes.
"They fit a pattern with earlier seizures, they are just a larger number."
The court heard Ali, who listened to proceedings through an interpreter, had earlier received eight formal warnings following the seizure of illicit goods, including seven loads of tobacco.
He was not prosecuted because they were not considered a significant size.
The court heard the eight previous seizures, including one of alcohol, were worth about £27,800 in unpaid duty.
Mr Sharpe called Ali a "professional smuggler" and the court heard he ran mini-supermarkets across the North and the Midlands to act as a "front" for his cigarette smuggling.
Other seizures linked to him had been made in Leicester, Wakefield, Bradford, and Grantham.
He also ran a mini-supermarket in Boothferry Road, Goole, where 6,960 non-UK duty cigarettes were found concealed under the stairs.
Mr Sharpe said: "He seems to set up shops up and down the country and everywhere he sets up shops, he imports illicit cigarettes to sell at the shops.
Ali, who has since moved to Cardale Road, Nottingham, pleaded guilty to moving or concealing goods on which duty or restriction is due.
Richard Davies, for Ali, said since his move to Nottingham he had "changed his lifestyle and changed his attitude".
Jailing Ali for two years, Recorder Tahir Khan QC told him that during his police interview "you made certain admissions, but not to the full extent of the prosecution case against you, which is that you were instrumental in bringing those cigarettes into the country, and that this was really part of a pattern of behaviour on your part because of the eight previous seizures".
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