Tobacco smuggler gets jail term

Sixty-two-year-old Verna Dunphy, from Caerphilly in Wales, was found with almost £25,000 in her handbag in April 2010.
Dunphy had admitted tobacco smuggling and intent to defraud at a previous hearing, and was sentenced to 51 weeks jail suspended for two years and a curfew order at Reading Crown Court today on March 16.
Speaking after the case Assistant Director of HM Revenue and Customs, John Cooper, said: “Smuggled tobacco products undercut honest businesses; they encourage normally law-abiding people to fund criminality. Tobacco smuggling is a crime and we will continue to investigate those suspected of involvement in it.”