TWO Medway business partners have started three-year jail sentences for their part in a sophisticated bootlegging operation.

Another organiser, 45-year-old Royston Jones, was sentenced to four years in his absence after going on the run.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that Jones suggested the smuggling venture to Angelica O'Hanlon and Thomas Tanton after meeting on a business trip to Thailand.

O'Hanlon, 37, and 51-year-old Tanton arranged to bring two containers loaded with large quantities of tobacco into the country in 2002.

Shauna Ritchie, prosecuting, said if the plan had succeeded almost £890,000 in customs duty would have been evaded. Both loads were intercepted as they entered the docks at Southampton and Cork, Ireland.

The National Crime Squad had started an investigation into the business activities of O'Hanlon and Tanton In March 2002.

Miss Ritchie said O'Hanlon was running a business at Unit 9b on the Medway City Estate under the names Global Traders International Ltd and World Traders International Ltd.

The lease was surrendered and O'Hanlon moved her business, importing furniture from the Far East, to a unit at Chatham Dockyard.

Police installed a listening device and other equipment inside the unit and discovered the plan to smuggle tobacco from Thailand. Innocent transport companies carrying legitimate loads were enlisted.

Officials at Southampton Docks stopped a truck in June 2002. The container, which had been abandoned, contained counterfeit Golden Virginia tobacco.

O'Hanlon was overheard suggesting a meeting at Rochester's Roffen Club. Both she and Tanton were seen at the club, along with a BMW car connected to Jones.

On June 22, the second container arrived at Cork Docks with a load of earthenware pots, concealing more illicit tobacco.

Miss Ritchie said if the operation had succeeded, nine tonnes of tobacco would have arrived in the UK and £885,965 duty would have been evaded. "It bears the hallmarks of a sophisticated operation," she said.

It involved links with legitimate overseas operations and genuine companies to disguise the illegal activities.

O'Hanlon and Tanton admitted conspiracy to evade duty.

Rupert Bowers, for mother-of-one O'Hanlon, of Watts Avenue, Rochester, said she became involved purely for economic reasons.

She and Tanton, of Mark Brunel Way, Historic Dockyard, Chatham, went to Thailand on business and in August 2001 set up a company importing scooters. But they were not up to UK standards and they lost their investment of £25-30,000.

O'Hanlon then returned to Thailand to source other goods, including garden furniture. "It got to the point where finances became extremely strained," said Mr Bowers.

On one trip she met Jones and he told her and Tanton he needed help to import tobacco.

Mr Bowers said O'Hanlon, who had a daughter in March last year, had recently taken over the Nelson Brewing Company and was managing director.

"Any sentence will not only affect her, but her child, her partner, the people she employs and their families," he said.

But Judge Michael Lawson, QC, replied: "Put like that, there is an element of blackmail to it, rather than saying she let those people down."

The judge said the case involved professional smuggling. "I accept that they responded to a suggestion made by Mr Jones," he said. "They had the business experience to put the plan into effect. All three played some organisational role."

Had the case been contested, he said, the sentence would have been four-and-a-half years.

Jones, formerly of Commissioners Road, Strood, was sentenced on the basis that he had denied conspiracy to evade duty.