A LITTLE Hulton smuggler has been jailed for three years after helping to bring more than 20 million illegal cigarettes into the country.

At Birmingham Crown Court 25-year-old Macauley Glossop, of Parkway Grove, Little Hulton, was convicted of conspiracy to evade £6 million of excise duty and money laundering.

His co-accused, 48-year-old Robert McClean from Castle Vale, Birmingham and Simon Lay, 53, of Sutton Coldfield were jailed for five years and three-and-a-half years respectively.

Glossop and Lay were arrested in May 2018 after investigators from HMRC watched them load two million cigarettes onto a lorry at a Birmingham industrial estate.

Lay left the unit in the lorry and was arrested by police on the M6, caught red handed with the cigarettes on board.

Glossop was arrested at the industrial unit, near to Erdington’s Fort Dunlop Retail Park, where officers discovered nearly 19 million illegal cigarettes.

The court heard that McLean had played a leading role in the conspiracy. He was the unit's tenant and investigators had discovered, in the months leading up to the arrests, he had received £84,980 in cash into his bank accounts.

Richard Paris, assistant director of HMRC's fraud investigation service, said: “These sentences should serve as a warning to others involved in the illegal cigarette and tobacco trade. We are determined to dismantle these networks and we will continue to seize illegal cigarettes and the proceeds of crime.

“Illegal tobacco costs the UK around £1.9 billion a year, which undermines legitimate traders and deprives public services of much needed money. This type of crime also helps fund other organised crime that causes real harm to our communities, such as drugs, guns and human trafficking.

“I would urge anybody who knows of anyone committing any type of tax fraud to report them to HMRC online, or call the Fraud Hotline on 0800 788 887.”