Blackburn tobacco smuggler ordered to repay £30k (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Blackburn tobacco smuggler ordered to repay £30k

7:30pm Sunday 21st June 2009 in

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A BLACKBURN tobacco smuggler faces an extended prison sentence if he fails to repay £30,000 he made from crime within six months.

Saiful Chowdhury, 40, used his clothing company in Accrington Road, Blackburn, to sneak more than 30 tonnes of tobacco into the UK, avoiding tax.

It is thought the operation cost £3.3m in lost tax revenue.

Following an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), he was jailed for five years in May 2008 after being found guilty of laundering criminal profits of around £434,000.

At a confiscation before Canterbury Crown Court, Chowdhury was ordered to repay a total of £30,269, within six months or face an additional 12 months in jail.

After the case, Malcolm Bragg, HMRC assistant director criminal investigation, said: “All criminals care about is profit.

“We will continue to work with our prosecutors to bring these cases to court, reclaiming illegal profits for the public purse.

“This success is part of our continued campaign to stamp out the illegal trade in tobacco smuggling; criminality that costs the taxpayer nearly £3 billion a year in lost revenue.” Chowdhury, who was living in Chester Close, Audley, before his imprisonment, had first been intercepted by HMRC officers at Dover’s Eastern Docks in November 2005.

After questioning Chowdhury, HMRC officers then searched the van he was travelling in and they discovered half a tonne of tobacco hidden under boxes of clothing.

He was also found to have about £8,500 in cash.

Chowdhury was arrested, interviewed and released on bail as investigations continued.

While on bail Chowdhury was intercepted twice by HMRC officers at Dover’s outward bound controls.

Investigations by HMRC officers uncovered a bank account, which Chowdhury had set up, to transfer over £380,000 to a tobacco supp-lier in Belgium between September and December 2006.