Revenue officers came under fire for failing to pr

Revenue officers came under fire for failing to properly investigate a husband and wife who set up a profitable bootleg business together smuggling tobacco products through Gatwick and Heathrow airports.

The grandparents were accused of flying to Madrid and Lanzarote to stuff empty suitcases full of cartons of cigarettes, packets of cigars and hand rolling tobacco.

In January this year when James Craigie and his wife Elsbeth were both stopped as they separately went through the green ‘nothing to declare’ channel at Heathrow – their luggage filled with cigarettes.

And London’s Southwark Crown Court heard a search of their home revealed a stockpile of allegedly smuggled goods – and ticket and boarding passes to show the couple were frequent fliers to Spain and the Canary Islands.

A jury cleared Newcastle-born James Craigie and wife Elsbeth of being knowingly concerned in the evasion of duty between August 25 last year and January 12, 2000.

However, the panel convicted former miner 58-year-old Craigie and his 57-year-old wife, of Hayward Gardens, Putney, sw London, of duty evasion on January 12 when they were arrested with more than 40,000 cigarettes crammed in their suitcases.

After jailing each grandparent for three months, a judge said bootlegging was a ‘prevalent’ offence but accused Customs officers of simply ‘grabbing documents’ without investigating what lay behind them.

He said of the more serious allegation the jury had been ‘compassionate’.

But Recorder Andrew Mitchell, QC, added: ‘It may also be the lack of investigative work that was done to show what was behind the frequent trips to Lanzarote and Madrid.

‘In cases alleging a course of conduct, investigators must look behind the trips.

Revenue evasion has a serious impact on all of us.

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Sentencing the defendants, the judge said ‘there was nothing sadder’ than jailing grandparents in the dock for a crime where ‘it is the rest of society that you have hurt by what you have done.

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Recorder Mitchell continued: ‘Duty evaded running to nearly pnds stlng 7,000 which would have been useful in your local primary school – the place where your daughter teaches, for example.

‘But when one reflects on the duty, the shop around the corner that could have scraped together that extra income and the fact we all curse when local shops close down, one has to see the overall impact on the general public.

‘We all in society have a duty to pull together – and that is what you have not done.

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When interviewed after their arrest, the Craigies both denied they were commercial smugglers but said they were returning with the tobacco products for family members.

Mrs Craigie explaining to officers that ‘there were a lot of smokers in the family.

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But Miss Helen Khan, prosecuting, told the jury: ‘They were basically going abroad to buy those products, come back and offer them for sale.

‘They were cigarette smuggling, bootlegging, to use the common parlance.

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Miss Khan said on August 25 last year Mrs Craigie was stopped at Gatwick when she returned from Lanzarote with her grandson.

When duty free allowances were explained to her, she declared 600 cigarettes, a packet of hand rolling tobacco, and a bottle of gin.

However, when her baggage was searched, Customs officers found a further 22,000 cigarettes, made up of cartons of the popular brands Superkings, Benson and Hedges and Silk Cut.

Miss Khan said the offending cigarettes were seized, the defendant also being served with an ‘official warning letter.

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She said last January 12, both defendants were arrested at Heathrow as both were separately stopped by officers as they went through the green channel five minutes apart.

Mr Craigie’s cases contained 20,800 cigarettes and 500g of tobacco.

The one item of clothing in the cases he admitted packing himself was an anorak.

Similarly, his wife’s baggage contained 24,200 cigarettes.

Also seized were return tickets from Gatwick to Lanzarote.

The husband claimed he had flown abroad with a ‘kitty’ provided by members of the family to buy cheap tobacco from a Madrid trader, having been given the source of the contraband by a friend.

He refused to say how much he had spent on the items but denied they were to sell on.

Mr Craigie admitted taking out empty cases but maintained he believed it did not matter how many cigarettes were purchased when they were being taken from one EU country to another member state.

Mrs Craigie also claimed she had done nothing wrong as the cigarettes were for personal use.

‘She said the cigarettes were for family and friends and were not to sell on,’ said Miss Khan.

‘She said there were a lot of smokers in the family and she did not think she had to declare the tobacco.

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The grandmother also admitted she had heard of ‘bootlegging’ but said she believed ‘it was only relating to booze.

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