A freight distribution manager from Kent, who hid over 14 million packs of cigarettes in lorries transporting fruit and vegetables, has been jailed for six and a half years.

Barry Wood, 45, from Maidstone, tried to evade an estimated £2.5 million in duty and VAT charges.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) investigators intercepted two separate lorry loads at Dover Docks in July and November 2010.

Another man, Romulus Boca, a Romanian national, was sentenced to three years in prison after being caught driving a freight lorry filled with millions of smuggled cigarettes.

'These men used their positions in a transport company, and their knowledge of the freight industry, to set up this smuggling operation, and they are criminals out to make a profit without concern for the consequences for the livelihoods of honest shopkeepers,' said Peter Hollier, HMRC assistant director of criminal investigation.

The first vehicle was stopped at Dover Docks on Tuesday 20 July 2010 and its documents stated that it contained fruit and vegetables; six million illicit cigarettes were recovered.

Officers then recovered eight million cigarettes from a second lorry, which was stopped four months later at Dover Docks, and driven by Romulus Boca, who later tried to flee abroad while on bail.

His Honour Judge Byers upon sentencing the two men said: “You cheated every honest taxpayer in the UK and in particular small businesses in the Kent area. The sentence must punish you to reflect the seriousness of the crime and send a clear message that these offences will be dealt with severely by the courts.”

It has been confirmed by the courts that confiscation proceedings are now underway to recover all criminal profits of this crime.

The sentences come up at a heightened period of crime activity in the fresh produce industry, with the HMRC recently setting up a task force investigating the grocery trade, and aiming to recover up to £7 million.