Cigarettes hidden in lorry seized at port

Border force officers based at Killingholme found the haul concealed in a specially-adapted lorry that arrived on a ferry from the Hook of Holland. The cigarettes had been hidden inside hollow metal beams underneath the trailer’s load of cosmetics, which was bound for Doncaster.

The vehicle, registered in Poland, and the cigarettes have been seized. No further action will be taken against the driver, who is Polish.

Sam Bullimore, from Border Force, said: “Cigarette smuggling is not a victimless crime. It defrauds the public purse out of huge sums of money at a time when the country can least afford it.

“The gangs behind this sort of criminality are also often involved in other serious organised crime.”