LONDON: More than 600m illicit cigarettes and 137 tonnes of hand-rolling tobacco with a tax value of £232m were seized by the government in the space of six months in 2015.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said the figures showed the department was reducing the illicit trade but that it remained a “significant problem”.
An HMRC spokesman said by working with other enforcement agencies it had halved the size of the illicit market in cigarettes and that of illicit hand-rolling tobacco by a third.
Between April and September 2015 more than 619.1m cigarettes were seized – with 10.7m of these inland, 182.8m at the border and 425.6m overseas. In the same period 137.8 tonnes of hand-rolling tobacco was also seized.
The combination of both illicit hauls would have lost the government £232m in unpaid duty if they had not been seized.
The spokesman said: “Last year HMRC prosecuted 417 people, prevented £746m revenue losses as a result of investigation of organised crime groups and seized over 1.8bn cigarettes and 313 tonnes of hand-rolling tobacco.
“Tobacco fraud cost the UK £2.1bn in 2014/15. We encourage anyone with information about the illegal sale of tobacco to contact the customs hotline on 0800 59 5000.”
A report published by HMRC in March 2015 said smuggling “undermines legitimate business and is dominated by internationally organised criminal groups often involved in other crimes such as drug smuggling and people trafficking”.
Following the launch of the tackling tobacco smuggling strategy in 2000, HMRC said it had had a significant impact on reducing the trade.
Since then it has decreased the illicit market for cigarettes from 22% to 10% now – with hand-rolling tobacco down from 61% to 35%.
In that same period the revenue lost has fallen from £3.4bn to £2.1bn per year.
