Barnet man sentenced for smuggling over a million cigarettes into the UK.

11, October 2018 | Ealing Times

A man who smuggled more than a million illegal cigarettes into the country in parcels labelled as ‘leather shoes’ has been sentenced.

Ashley Clinton-Carter, 60, of Mill Hill, set up 17 accounts at mailbox delivery outlets in London under the alias of John Bull to smuggle cigarettes into the UK from China.

Clinton-Carter was arrested on February 5 2015 carrying parcels containing 16,800 illicit cigarettes that he had collected from an outlet in Harrow.

During an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), officers found customs declarations for November 2014 to February 2015 which showed the packages should have contained ‘clothes’ or ‘leather shoes’ – A further 251,600 cigarettes were seized.

Another 810,200 cigarettes, addressed to the mailboxes, were seized by Border Force officers at Heathrow and Coventry airports.

http://www.ealingtimes.co.uk/news/16974410.barnet-man-sentenced-for-smuggling-over-a-million-cigarettes-into-the-uk/