A market trader was arrested with a lock-up bursti

A market trader was arrested with a lock-up bursting with bootleg booze and cigarettes as he hoped to cash in on a last minute Christmas rush, a court heard today (Friday).

The father-of-five cleared pnds stlng 400 a Sunday in profit selling cut price cigarettes, spirits, wines and beer, at the busy Hackney Wick Market in London.

London’s Southwark Crown Court heard Gurpal Singh was a retail end of a smuggling chain secretly importing the goods through the Channel Tunnel.

The 33-year-old would travel down to Kent at the mouth of the crossing to rendezvous with bootleggers and buy stock for his illicit money spinner.

In a trade now costing the country more than pnds stlng 2.

5 billion a year, Singh would purchase a carton of 200 cigarettes for pnds stlng 20, a litre of spirits for pnds stlng 4, and a bottle of wine for pnds stlng 2 or pnds stlng 2.

50.

From his market stall, he would sell on the cigarettes for pnds stlng 24, the spirits for pnds stlng 6, and wine for pnds stlng 3 – and despite his modest margin, the goods were still a bargain price for customers.

Mr Martin Evans, prosecuting, said it was calculated that over six months goods sold by Singh had cost the country pnds stlng 73,500 in lost duty and VAT.

Singh, of (20) Riverside Road, Tottenham, north London, admitted harbouring or dealing in goods with intent to defraud.

Mr Evans said on December 15, last year, Customs officers raided Singh’s lock-up at AC Self-Store, in Lea Bridge Road, Clapton, east London, and arrested the defendant on the premises.

‘Outside there was a pallet of wine.

The defendant explained he had not yet had the opportunity to put it into the store,’ said counsel.

‘In fact there would not have been room for it to go in unless it was unpacked.

‘

Mr Evans said officers seized 13,000 cigarettes, 3,500 litres of spirits, and 3,000 litres of wine from the store and Singh’s van parked nearby.

Interviewed, Singh admitted dealing in bootleg goods, supplying a number of shops and selling at the market.

The shop-assistant said he found it difficult to manage on his wages and had been ‘tempted’ to sell the smuggled goods to help support his family.

He accepted the market stall had earned him pounds stlng 10,400 over the the period of his dealing.

Jailing Singh for 12 months, Judge George Bathurst-Norman said:

‘Offences of this kind are extremely prevalent, and we get them in this court week in and week out.

‘It has to be made clear that the risk of committing offences like these just are not worth it.

If you commit them you will find yourself in prison – and in prison for a long time.

‘
ends