AN illegal tobacco trader has been jailed for nearly five years after evading more than £2million in taxes.

Lee Foster, 49, of Highfield Close, Oswaldtwistle, was trapped by HM Revenue and Customs officials in a surveillance operation in 2014.

Foster was caught buying illegal cigarettes and tobacco to sell on. He had a part in a £16.5million excise duty fraud that centred on a criminal network based in Blackburn.

Detailed records kept by the gang leader, Iqbal Haji, of Whalley Street, Blackburn, show that Foster bought illegal tobacco products 183 times between 2010 and 2014.

Foster pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court to two counts of being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of excise duty. The 183 purchases from Haji amounted to £2,088,298.85.

Foster, unemployed, was arrested at Manchester Airport in December 2016 as he returned from holiday in Tenerife. He was jailed for four years and nine months and is the fifth customer of Haji’s to be jailed.

Sandra Smith, assistant director of HMRC’s fraud investigation service, said: “Foster was a middleman for this illegal tobacco ring.

“He was a regular customer of Haji and fully involved in smuggled goods that damage legitimate sales from honest shops.

“Middlemen like Foster are essential to organised criminal gangs, allowing them to hide the scale of their illegal trade.

“We are determined to create a level playing field for local businesses by disrupting the illegal trade and punishing the fraudsters.”

Haji, now 51, was sentenced in May last year to six years’ jail for excise duty evasion and two years for money laundering, to run concurrently.

Three of his main customers, Keith Allen, then 66, of West View, Oswaldtwistle, James Willmott, then 54, of Wellfield, Clayton-le-Moors, and Wayne Brown, then 51, of Spring Vale, Darwen, were imprisoned at the same time, also for excise duty evasion and money laundering.