Man faces £500,000 cigarette fine

A County Armagh man has been ordered to pay £500,000 in unpaid duty on a consignment of smuggled cigarettes.

A joint police and customs operation in 2005 recovered almost 16m cigarettes at Battleford Road near Armagh City. No duty had been paid on them.

Aiden Francis Grew, 52, from Benburb Street in Blackwatertown, pleaded guilty to having more than five million of the cigarettes

Grew also received a three-year suspended prison sentence.

Alongside him in the dock was 44-year-old Henry McLaughlin from Derryvarren Road in Coalisland.

He was ordered to pay £100,000 and given a two-year suspended sentence after he pleaded guilty to a similar charge. He also admitted possessing criminal property in the form of cash and documents.

A third man, Thomas Noel Abernethy from Glebe Mews in Dungannon, also admitted evading duty and was given a two-year suspended sentence.

Charges against four other defendants, including Grew's wife Nuala, were dropped.