Suspended sentence for Leamore smuggler
Suspended sentence for Leamore smuggler
The YamYam 4 Feb 10
A businessman who stored over half a million illegally imported cigarettes at his Bloxwich warehouse has avoided a custodial jail sentence.
Alex Rolls, 29, of Rochcester Croft was handed a 32 week sentence suspended for two years at Wolverhampton Crown Court. He was also ordered to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work and pay £5,000 in costs.
In October last year, police were led to The Bed Warehouse in Bloxwich by an anonymous tip off where they found 57 pallets of Gold Classics cigarettes destined to be sold on the black market. The cigarettes had been imported from overseas and so over £89,000 in customs duty should have been paid.
Mr Rolls initially denied any knowledge of the contents of the boxes and claimed he was storing the pallets as part of a business venture but eventually admitted evasion of cigarette duty. The warehouse has closed
down and Mr Rolls in now unemployed.
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