Cigarette pair must pay back £28,000

That was the agreed value to them of the £168,500 haul of contraband after VAT and duty had been deducted, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

Brothers-in-law Paul Harris and Graham Billingham will decide how the joint payment is split between them after it was decided both had sufficient assets to meet the bill.

They could not be charged for the unpaid duty and VAT due on the cigarettes because there was no evidence that they were responsible for actually smuggling them into the UK through customs, the Proceeds of Crime hearing was told.

Recorder Peter Cooke rejected a claim that the men should pay nothing since neither had financially benefitted from the offence. Mr Jonathan Challinor, defending Harris, argued: "Putting the prosecution case at its highest, he has laid out money to purchase the stock in trade and then had it confiscated. He would only have benefited if he had been able to sell the cigarettes."

Mr Cooke further ruled that each of the two men should face a further 13 months behind bars if the money was not paid within six months.

Harris, 55, from Chapel Street, Blakenall was locked up for three years and nine months and Billingham, 59, of Oswin Place, Coalpool, received a two year prison sentence in July 2011 after both admitted being concerned in dealing with, and keeping, the cigarettes with intent to defraud.

Harris was said to be in control of the movement and storage of the haul before it was sent on for distribution while Billingham was the driver who moved two loads and had keys to the warehouse where the cigarettes were kept.

The racket was smashed when 600,000 smuggled Gold Classic cigarettes worth £99,500 in tax were found in his van after it was stopped on the M6 near Perry Barr in December 2009. Forensic examination of his phone linked him to his brother-in-law.

Officers later searched the homes of both men and a container at a self storage unit in Aldridge leased by the pair where CCTV had captured them storing and removing boxes. A further 400,000 smuggled mixed brand cigarettes - including counterfeit Regal Kingsize along with Raquel, and Richman Royals which have no legal UK market - worth £69,000 in tax were discovered at the unit.

Adrian Farley, assistant director of criminal investigation for HMRC, said after the case: "We take tobacco smuggling very seriously.

"It is costing the British taxpayer around £2 billion a year in lost revenue to the public purse and has a devastating impact on honest retailers having to compete with the black market economy."