by Keith Hunt

Four men have been jailed for their involvement in smuggling almost five million cigarettes into the country through Dover and evading over £800,000 in duty.

Transport boss John Lester, 52, was handed the longest sentence of four years.

Martin O’Brien, 47, was sentenced to 16 months, Gavin Turner, 43, to 17 months and Steven Clarke, 35, to 18 months.

Clarke, of Newtown, Birmingham, Turner, of Arundel, West Sussex, and Lester, of Handsworth, Birmingham, all denied being concerned in the evasion of duty, but were convicted last month.

O’Brien, 47, of Harborne, Birmingham, admitted the charge on the first day of the trial.

Freight haulier Sean Mullins, 49, of Birmingham, was acquitted by direction of Judge Michael Carroll.

Maidstone Crown Court heard O’Brien was driving a lorry found to have the huge illicit cargo collected in Belgium in the back.

The Tony Lester International Transport lorry arrived at Dover Docks in January 2010 by ferry from Dunkirk.

Customs officers found 104 empty meat crates in the lorry. Thirty-two palettes contained 4,928,240 Gold Classic cigarettes. The duty evaded was £837,160.

Judge Carroll told the four: "I have to deal with this as a professional piece of behaviour because of the duty evaded alone."

He told Lester: "Suffice it to say I regard you as the most heavily involved of the four of you in the dock. I accept you were not at the top of the organisation.

"But you were an organiser and recruited the other three. I have no idea what your remuneration was going to be."