Around 10 million black market cigarettes worth almost £3
million in unpaid duty have been seized by Border Force at
Harwich.
Scanners detected anomalies with a Polish-registered lorry
which arrived in the Port of Harwich, Essex, on a ferry
from the Hook of Holland on Thursday 8 October. Paperwork
for the vehicle showed it should have contained dozens of
washing machines but only 4 appliances were onboard. Border
Force officers inspected the vehicle’s trailer to discover
huge pallets of shrink-wrapped Lambert and Butler silver
cigarettes.
It is the second largest seizure of cigarettes by Border
Force at Harwich this year.
Home Secretary said:
Every day Border Force teams are protecting the UK from
violent gangs hell-bent on smuggling in weapons, drugs
and illicit cash.
Border Force’s hard work has stopped criminals from
making huge profits from black market cigarettes and
cheating the taxpayer out of millions of pounds.
The Polish driver was arrested on suspicion of evasion of
excise duty but was subsequently released. The cab and
trailer he was driving was seized.
Had the smuggling attempt not been detected, it would have
cost the Treasury almost £3 million in unpaid duty and VAT.
Border Force had further success in stopping illicit
cigarettes entering the UK at the Port of Dover earlier
this month. On Saturday 3 October, officers discovered
almost 1 million cigarettes on a Slovenian-registered lorry
which had arrived at Dover’s Eastern Docks. Four pallets of
cigarettes were found worth about £430,000 in unpaid duty
and VAT.
Border Force officers use hi-tech search equipment to
combat immigration crime and detect banned and restricted
goods that smugglers attempt to bring into the UK.
In 2019, Border Force protected the Treasury from losing
more than £210 millon in unpaid duty from black market
cigarettes.
