Illegal tobacco smuggled into the UK through Goole has helped HMRC to slash the tax gap on illicit cigarettes and tobacco by more than half since 2005, according to a new report – and in the year to March 2024 prison sentences totalling 148 years were handed down to 107 cigarette and tobacco fraudsters.
In the same period, more than 1.3 billion illicit cigarettes have been seized, worth more than £678 million in tax, along with hand-rolling tobacco worth £41 million.
Just last month, two crooked carpenters who smuggled millions of illegal cigarettes into the UK through Goole inside planks of wood were jailed for nine and a half years.
Regimantas Nekrosevicius, 45, and Edvardas Zolynas, 43, used the same timber planks in a dozen shipments to and from Eastern Europe.
The multi-million pound tax scam was uncovered after 5.4 million cigarettes were seized by Border Force colleagues at the Yorkshire port of Goole. HMRC investigators proved the pair had received more than a dozen deliveries worth an estimated £19.9 million in evaded duty.
And in June last year a gang that was caught red handed with millions of counterfeit cigarettes at a Lincolnshire farm were jailed for 26 years.
These new figures, which were published today show the cigarette smuggling tax gap – the amount of estimated duty lost every year to cigarette fraud – has now reduced from 16.9% in 2005, to 6.9%.
Earlier this year HMRC and Border Force published a new illicit tobacco strategy ‘Stubbing Out the Problem’, which set out a continued commitment to reduce the trade in illicit tobacco, with a focus on reducing demand, and tackling the organised crime groups who are responsible.
Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, said: “We are determined to tackle the tax gap to help rebuild the public finances and ensure everyone pays their fair share.
“Stamping out the illicit tobacco trade will also cut down funding for wider crime and improve public health.”
