170,000 fake cigarettes were 'for personal use'

A haulier has been warned he is facing a jail sentence for smuggling 170,000 counterfeit cigarettes into Britain.

And Keith Nicholls - who claimed he intended smoking the cigarettes to feed his 100-a-day habit - was told in court that the fake tobacco contained dangerously high levels of poisons and toxic metals.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how police discovered the smuggled cigarettes, 25kg of fake rolling tobacco and an imitation firearm when they visited Nicholls' home last September to investigate an assault allegation.

Revenue and Customs officers were called to the house in Cambois, near Blyth, and a further search uncovered £10,000 in cash and paperwork listing cigarette brands, quantities, people's names and amounts of money.

Nicholls, who denied a charge of evading £32,000 of excise duty, claimed that all the tobacco found was for his personal use.

The cash and paperwork, he said, belonged to his business, K&M Hauliers and Removers.

The court was also told that the haul had been tested and found to contain five times the amount of toxic chemicals in legally produced and marketed cigarettes. There were particularly high traces of cadmium, arsenic and lead.

Nicholls was found guilty and warned by Judge Guy Whitburn that "this was not a low-level crime" and that he was considering sending him to prison.

The case has been adjourned for six weeks for sentence.