A 37-year-old hair salon owner and his accomplice have been jailed over a £450,000 tax fraud when they were caught bringing over 2.5 tons of tobacco into the UK.
Mohammed Kattany of Agnew Place in Salford, and Ahmed Al-Salaima, from Withington in Manchester, were each jailed for two years at Manchester Crown Court.
The pair were arrested in July 2013 when they were linked to seizures of illegal tobacco at Manchester airport, Heathrow airport and the Port of Felixstowe.
Each of these smuggling attempts were linked back to companies owned by the two men.
Kattany made multiple trips abroad, often to Dubai, to arrange the smuggling consignments and was caught with undeclared fruit-flavoured tobacco products in his own luggage at UK Customs.
Snipz, a Manchester hair salon owned by Al-Salaima, was also used as the address for parcel deliveries containing illegal tobacco and cigarettes which were intercepted by UK Border Force officers.
Sandra Smith, Assistant Director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said: “These determined smugglers used flimsy excuses to blame others for the hidden tobacco but all the evidence led directly to them.
“Nearly three tons of illegal tobacco were intercepted before making it to the streets thanks to the joint work of HMRC and BF. This was a serious attempt to steal hundreds of thousands of pounds from the public purse and undermine local businesses.”
Anyone with information about the trade in smuggled goods should contact the Customs Hotline on 0800 59 5000.
