A COUPLE who had to be extradited from Spain have been jailed for their part in a tobacco smuggling ring.

Stuart Murthwaite, 48, and his 45-year-old partner Catherine Gillen, of Beech Grove, Darwen, were found to be running a restaurant in Spain after an international arrest warrant was issued for them when they failed to appear in court.

Yesterday at Preston Crown Court Murthwaite was jailed for two years and Gillen for nine months for their part in a cigarette smuggling and mortgage fraud.

The court was told how 35 separate trips were made to Spain and Belgium by sea and air to smuggle the contraband cigarettes.

The trips meant the pair avoided paying over £221,000 in duties, the court was told.

Proceeds from the contraband were being used to buy properties in the North West of England and Southern Spain, the court heard.

Following their arrest in February 2006, the pair were allowed to live in southern Spain as part of their bail conditions. However, they failed to return to court in the UK at the appointed date in February this year.

After an appeal in the Lancashire Telegraph, they were eventually traced to the town of Salobrna, south of Granada , where they had been running El Padrino, an Italian restaurant which translated means The Godfather.

They were arrested in Spain a month ago and had been held in custody since.

Gillen, who was said to have played a lesser role by acting as the 'retailer' wrote a letter to the judge saying she was depressed and had suffered from anxiety.

She said she was concerned for her children's welfare and that she had to remove them from the fee-paying school they attended after the family assets were seized.

Sentencing Gillen to nine months imprisonment, Judge Robert Brown said: "I accept your role was a supporting role and that you were given the task by your partner, the principle director of the conspiracy, which saw you dealing with the clients who wanted to avail themselves with tobacco and cigarettes of which duty had not been paid."

After the case, a spokesperson for Lancashire police's organised crime unit said: "The result shows we have disrupted serious and organised crime, which was made possible due to good work between police and the local media."

He said that the couple's crime had caused a large cost to the taxpayer as six officers had to be spent to Spain to find the couple.