Willenhall man among three jailed for smuggling cigarettes

Three men, including one from the Black Country, have been jailed for their part in helping to smuggle four million contraband cigarettes into Staffordshire.

Customs officers discovered the massive haul, which would have flooded the illegal market, in the back of a lorry during a sting operation at a farm earlier this year. Ryan Fellows, from Willenhall, was yesterday jailed for 18 months for his part in the operation, which would have cheated HM Revenue out of almost £1 million in duty and VAT.

Stafford Crown Court heard that 33-year-old Fellows, of Giles Road, was caught unloading the lorry at Old House Farm, near Stafford, when customs oficers struck in March last year.

He was being helped by driver, Denis Freeman, while the third defendant, Ian Wells, stood by.

Officers were keeping watch on the farm, near Woodseaves, when a van hired for cash by Wells in Lichfield that day turned up, followed shortly afterwards by the lorry.

During a trial, Wells claimed he knew nothing about the cigarettes and had only been asked to do a courier job, while Freeman said he thought the boxes contained animal feed.

But their stories were rejected by jurors, who convicted them following their trial in August.

Mr Adam Western, for Fellows, who admitted dealing in goods on which duty had not been paid, said the cigarettes did not belong to his client. He added: "He has accepted his involvement at a lesser level."

Wells, aged 40, of Ely Close, Birmingham, was jailed for 12 months and Freeman, aged 63, of Oakham Road, Melton Mobray, Leicestershire, for two years.

Judge Mark Eades told them they had been "oiling the wheels of the black market".

"The tax on cigarettes is high and those who smuggle cigarettes in to the country and sell them on the black market can expect handsome profits," he said. "The duty evaded here is in excess of £964,000."

By Shaun Jepson