TWO men who smuggled millions of goods past customs have been jailed for a total of almost 20 years.

Gary Woodroof, 51, of Ravenoak Way, Chigwell, and Daniel Parman, 49, of Bancroft Avenue, Buckhurst Hill, avoided £6million of duty by concealing goods in mattresses, glass jars, toilet rolls and charcoal bags.

It is estimated they smuggled 11 million cigarettes, 5 tonnes of hand rolling tobacco and thousands of litres of wine into the UK using legitimate companies to ship the goods, and changing ports to confuse customs officers.

They were caught after suspicions were aroused when invoices showing substantial deliveries of alcohol to a warehouse, in Cable Street, east London, were uncovered.

Customs officers observed the warehouse and discovered it served as the main store for Woodroof and Parman's smuggling racket housing 15,000 litres of illegally imported Italian wine.

Further investigations by officers uncovered that a container which arrived in Purfleet was loaded with 3.5million cigarettes painstakingly concealed in glass jars.

In addition, mattresses and toilet rolls at Felixstowe were found filled with over 5 million cigarettes, and tonnes of tobacco were uncovered at the Port of Immingham hidden inside bags of charcoal.

Woodroof was found guilty of the fraudulent evasion of excise duty at Ipswich Crown Court and sentenced to nine years for tobacco smuggling and six months for alcohol smuggling with the sentences running consecutively. Parman was handed ten years for smuggling tobacco and six months for alcohol smuggling to run concurrently.

Sending the two men down Judge Peter Fenn said: “This was highly and professionally organised smuggling using a variety of methods and routes. You had numerous sources for cigarettes and tobacco around the world and you each played an organisational role in the deliveries to Cable Street.”

Assistant director of criminal investigation for customs John Kay said: “This was a serious bid to smuggle a large quantity of illicit alcohol and tobacco into the UK. The sheer quantities involved mean these goods could have been sold right across the UK. The illicit alcohol and tobacco would have undermined honest traders who only sell duty paid products.”

Customs are now seeking to recover the proceeds of the crimes.