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Cigarette smugglers must
repay stolen Tax
THE ringleader of a gang that used an
airline's staff discount travel programme to smuggle cigarettes through UK
airports has been handed a confiscation order for £348,705.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) found that flight attendant Dennis Connolly, 44,
from, Southport, had organised over 130 smuggling trips for himself and 5
others, using discounted staff tickets to travel. The gang hid cigarettes and
tobacco, worth £180,000 in evaded Duty and Taxes, in their luggage.
Connolly and his accomplice, Terence Steele, 58, of Liverpool, were each issued
with confiscation orders under the Proceeds of Crime Act, at Manchester Crown
Court, this week.
Zoe Ellerbeck, Assistant Director, Criminal Investigation, HMRC, said:-
"Airline employees hold a position of trust and abusing this privilege is a
serious matter. Connolly organised subsidised travel purely for smuggling
purposes. There are no excuses for smuggling, whatever your status, and HMRC are
determined to recover stolen Taxes. Tobacco fraud costs honest taxpayers more
than £2.1 billion a year, undercutting honest businesses, and drawing people
into wider criminality. Anyone with information about illicit tobacco sales or
smuggling should contact the Customs' Hotline on:- 0800 59 5000."
Connolly and Steele made large purchases of duty free tobacco in Spain and
Portugal for the gang to smuggle back to the UK.
Connolly received a confiscation order for £348,705 and Steele received 1 for
£111,671. After assessment of their available assets, Connolly was ordered to
repay £21,543 within 3 months or 15 months will be added to his jail
sentence, and Steele was ordered to repay £109,297 within 3 months or serve
2 years in jail. |
