See the £1.8million cigarette haul that landed one man in jail

Eight million smuggled cigarettes led to one man being jailed for three years.
Burniston's haul.Burniston's haul.
Burniston's haul.

Shaun Burniston was arrested by HM Revenue and Customs officers as he was unloading the cigarettes, worth almost £1.8million in duty and taxes, from a lorry into a secluded barn in Peterborough in August 2013.

Burniston, of Whinlaw, Gateshead, was removing 26 pallets of non-UK duty paid cigarettes, which had been smuggled from Holland along with paperwork claiming it to be electrical equipment.

He was caught in August 2013.He was caught in August 2013.
He was caught in August 2013.
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He was sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court on January 6 after admitting the fraudulent evasion of excise duty at an earlier hearing. He was handed a three-year sentence.

Brett Wilkinson, Assistant Director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said: "Using a remote location and concealing the cigarettes within a cover load of electrical equipment, Burniston wrongly assumed that he and the illegal goods were well hidden - but there is no hiding place.

“HMRC will make use of every tool available to tackle fraud and ensure that we catch organised criminals, and make sure that no one is beyond our reach.

"This criminal activity harms the livelihoods of honest shopkeepers, disrupting criminal trade is at the heart of our strategy to clampdown on the illicit tobacco market, which costs the UK economy £2.4 billion a year.

“Don't let criminals profit - report it by calling our 24-hour Customs hotline on 0800 59 5000."