A smuggler has been jailed for more than two years over a bid to bring 7.5 million cigarettes into the West Midlands and evade £1.1 million of duty.

Coach builder Dale Wynne, aged 27, was spotted in a layby near junction four of the M5 in a Ford Fiesta in May last year.

His accomplice, Hungarian national Atilla Budi, was parked in an HGV carrying the haul of fake Lambert & Butler.

Police and Customs officials swooped on them and seized the cigarettes destined for sale in across the Black Country.

The men are believed to have travelled from Hungary, intending to sell the haul on the black market.

Counterfeit cigarettes are not made to the same standard as named brands, and are often far more dangerous to people’s health. Many are manufactured in China.

Wynne, of Painters Croft, Coseley, and 35-year-old Budi, were jailed for two years and four months, and two years respectively at Worcester Crown Court.

Nick Burriss, assistant chief investigation officer for HM Revenue & Customs, said: “Smuggling cigarettes is not a harmless tax fiddle. It cheats the Government of revenue which can be used to fund public services such as schools and hospitals.

“We will not hesitate to take action against those smuggling cigarettes into the country. These sentences will serve as a deterrent to others.”

The men pleaded guilty to evading revenue under the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 and officers will now consider confiscation of cash under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Wynne’s mother Yvonne Rebisz today said she was appaled at the severity of his sentence.

She said: “The idea of prison is to rehabilitate. At the time he committed this crime he was unemployed and in financial difficulties. He did it for just a small sum of money.

“Since then he has got a job as an apprentice engineer and he’s been working up to 60 hours a week,” she added. “He was going forwards in his life but sending him to prison is setting him back again.

“The ‘Mr Big’ of this operation is still out there and no doubt he will get someone else in a desperate situation to do his dirty work next time.”

Meanwhile, a Black Country man has been jailed for six years for importing 35 tonnes of rolling tobacco with a street value of £3.8 million. Andrew Fergusson was stopped by police leaving Dover in September 2005.

Fergusson, aged 53, of Wolverson Close, Willenhall, was found with £42,740 in cash concealed in his van.

A search of his home revealed an additional £3,000, documents and a number of mobile phones, each with a different company name written on the back.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that since 2001, Fergusson had been buying hand rolling tobacco in Luxembourg and posting it to the UK in large parcels labelled as electrical goods.

They were delivered to storage centres in the UK where Fergusson had set up 24 bogus companies.

Storage centres would contact Fergusson when the parcels arrived using one of the mobile phone numbers and he would then go and collect the goods.

Fergusson had previously pleaded guilty but said that he was only a courier.

He was sentenced to six years for illegally importing the tobacco and to six years for money laundering offences. The sentences will run concurrently.

Revenue & Customs assistant chief investigation officer, Chris Ballard, praised the sentence.

He said: “This is an excellent result for all honest traders. This sentence will serve as a deterrent to others. Smuggling tobacco is not a harmless tax fiddle – it cheats the Government of revenue which can be used to fund public services.”