Cigarette smuggling pub landlord avoids jail
12.08.08
A pub landlord who was stopped three times at Gatwick Airport with large amounts of cigarettes and tobacco on which no duty had been paid has avoided jail, Bedford Today reports. Andrew Rally, 30, of Coneygate, Meppershall, was given a suspended jail sentence at Luton Crown Court for evading £10,727 of excise duty.
Mr Rally had attempted to smuggle cigarettes through Gatwick on November 1, 2005, October 21, 2006 and December 4, 2006 arriving on flights from Malaga and Tenerife. The first two times the goods were confiscated and he was read a warning, but on the final occasion he had four friends with him who were found to be carrying part of his stock.
On the first he had tobacco and 2,200 cigarettes, on the second 13,600 cigarettes and finally 30,600 cigarettes. He admitted he had paid for his friends' air tickets for the one-day trip to Malaga and pleaded guilty to three charges of fraudulent evasion of duty.
Gemma Stokes, defending, said he did not sell the cigarettes. She said: ‘He had seen how a Chinese restaurant in Luton had the practice of giving away cigarettes to customers and decided that would be a good idea in his pub to encourage people to return.'
‘He was desperately trying to make it a focal point of the community and has held a number of charity events. If he was sent to prison his wife could not run the pub on her own. He has learned his lesson and has travelled abroad since and not bought any duty free goods back at all.’
Judge Barbara Mensah told him: ‘Your persistence is an aggravating factor. Twice you were stopped and put on notice that what you were doing was wrong and on the last occasion you got four people to assist you.’ She gave him a six month sentence suspended for a year with supervision, 100 hours unpaid work and £750 costs.
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