A CHIPPY owner who hid £700,000 inside his shop and behind bushes at his home to avoid tax has been jailed.

Mustapha Aitbouzit, 62, from Chorley, who was involved in selling huge quantities of smuggled cigarettes, pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering offences.

In April 2008, tax officers and police visited Aitbouzit’s Brown’s chip shop, Parker Street, Chorley and discovered he was selling smuggled cigarettes from the premises.

They found illegal cigarettes and tobacco under the counter and also in a locked room above the shop with around £200,000 in cash hidden under a bed.

Bundles of cash were found in the shop’s safe and 11,840 cigarettes and 300 grammes of hand rolling tobacco were discovered on the premises.

During a search of his home on Stansted Road in Chorley an additional £500,000 cash was found hidden in the garage and under bushes in the garden.

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs said Aitbouzit had hidden the cash in an attempt to avoid paying tax and excise duty.

After the case, Mike O'Grady, assistant director, HMRC Criminal Investigation, said: “When officers searched Aitbouzit’s properties it was like a game of hide and seek.

“We kept finding packets of money in such strange places it was obvious that the cash wasn’t legitimate.

“The sentence sends a clear message to those tempted to launder money and conceal illegal income that they are taking a serious risk.”

Smuggled cigarettes were also seized from the house.

The money laundered totalled £708,225.38 and was detained under proceeds of crime legislation.

It was packaged in white envelopes in white plastic bags and plastic containers, on one such bag the words ‘cig money’ was scrawled in biro.

Aitbouzit was jailed for a total of two years and two months by a judge at Manchester Crown Court .

The seized cash will form part of a confiscation order hearing at a later date.