WARSAW: A smuggler from Greenford who was caught stashing illegal cigarettes and tobacco among boxes of tissues in the back of a lorry has been spared jail.Artur Golebiowski, a 38 year old sales assistant, was arrested as he unloaded the stash of contraband products at a lock-up in Handsworth, Birmingham.
Officers from HMRC found Golebiowski, originally from Poland, had created false documents and hijacked a company’s identity to import the tobacco into the UK.The lorry in Birmingham was later found to contain 179,460 Jin Ling cigarettes and 37kg of shredded tobacco worth £53,287 in evaded duty.
On October 30, Golebiowski, of Queens Avenue, pleaded guilty to fraudulent evasion of excise duty at Birmingham Crown Court and was sentenced on December 6.
He was handed an 18 month prison sentence suspended for two years, fined £7,500 and ordered to pay £1,800 in costs, and must do 100 hours of unpaid work.
