Cigarette smuggling plot gang sentenced

Three men were involved in a plot to smuggle 2.5 million cigarettes worth £387,000 in tax and duty into Staffordshire from Holland, a court heard.

Cannock businessman Adrian East, Robert Cairns, of Tipton, and John Durnall, of Wolverhampton, were given suspended sentences.

The men were at the bottom end of the plot, Birmingham Crown Court heard. Those at the top have not been caught.

The court was told East, Cairns and Durnall were arrested by customs officials when the cigarettes were delivered to a unit at Littleton Business Park, Cannock, in February 2009.

East, aged 45, of Swallow Close, Huntington, had paid to rent the unit. Cairns, 42, of Cophall Street, Tipton, was paid £100 to shift the cigarettes. Durnall, 65, of Hilary

Drive, Penn, was to get £50 for signing for the consignment, but did not get any money.

East and Cairns pleaded guilty on Monday to carrying or harbouring the cigarettes knowing they had been smuggled, and Durnall admitted the same charge yesterday.

East was given 12 months suspended for a year, fined £3,750, ordered to pay £7,000 costs and to pay back £1,200. Cairns received a six-months suspended for a year and ordered to pay £1, and Durnall was given seven months, suspended for a year.