Airport tobacco smuggler from Southsea avoids prison

A WOMAN who smuggled 59,400 cigarettes and 23.25 kilos of hand-rolling tobacco into the UK has been spared jail.

Unemployed Lavinia Akyurt, 42, of Southsea, was arrested in September 2016 at Gatwick Airport.

A probe by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) found between January 2015 and September 2016 she smuggled tobacco on four occasions.

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She smuggled cigarettes and tobacco via London Stansted, Durham Tees Valley and Gatwick airports.

Christopher Gill, assistant director of fraud investigation service at HMRC, said: ‘Lavinia Akyurt thought it was acceptable to undercut hardworking local shopkeepers by smuggling tobacco.’

In total, 59,400 cigarettes and 23.25 kilos of hand-rolling tobacco were smuggled into the UK and seized.

On June 7 Akyurt pleaded guilty to the fraudulent evasion of excise duty.

She received a 15-month jail term suspended for two years at Lewes Crown Court.