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JAILED: Mum sold smuggled cigarettes for £2.75 per pack on Facebook

A mother of three who ran a near £90,000-a-year tax racket by selling smuggled cigarettes and tobacco through Facebook has been jailed for two years three months.

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Hazel Lumbley, top left, sold smuggled cigarettes and tobacco through Facebook

Hazel Lumbley launched the four-year long scam with help from a mystery supplier allegedly based in West Bromwich, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

The 38-year-old was later joined by her then partner Steven Henderson, aged 34, who was locked up for two years.

The pair sold over 256,000 cut-price cigarettes and more than 2,500 pouches of rolling tobacco in 2015, revealed Mr Richard McConaghy, prosecuting.

The tell-tale details of that year's fraudulent business were recorded in a 365-day diary seized with other paperwork when Revenue and Customs investigators raided the home in Darlaston Road, Wednesbury, where the couple were living together on April 6 2017.

Delivery details entered in the tell-tale diary

By that time Lumbley had recruited her eldest child Hayley Eaton - then aged 17 and living at the same address - to take part in the fraud, continued Mr McConaghy.

£2.75 per pack

The cheap cigarettes - an £8.99p packet of 20 cost £2.75 - were sold through Facebook by Lumbley with special offers like ‘try before you buy’ and free delivery.

An unregistered mobile phone was used for most of the business but a second phone linked to the crime was traced to her, the court heard.

Orders were taken before the counterfeit goods were bought in bulk from the supplier.

Cigarettes found in Lumbley's car when her home was raided

They claimed to operate from a shop in West Bromwich but nothing was found at the address when it was raided on the same day as the home of the defendants.

One theory is that those involved had been tipped off.

The racket ran from January 2013 until December 2016, with Eaton only being involved for the final year while Henderson took part for around three years.

Lost tax

Lumbley started the fraud, which customs officers said had cost the Treasury about £350,000 in lost excise duty.

This figure was reached by using the 2015 figures - the only details of an annual return found during the inquiry - as an estimate for the other three years of the scam.

The defence argued that the money made by the defendants was far less with actual annual profits reaching no more than £40,000.

Rolling tobacco

Recorder Martin Wasik sentenced the trio on the basis that the true value of the fraud was more than £100,000.

When investigators swooped on Lumbley's home they found £2,200 cash in the glove box of her BMW together with packets of smuggled cigarettes and rolling tobacco. The car was parked outside the address.

Mr Curtis Myrie, defending her and her eldest child - the other two are under 11 years old - said: "She accepts she must be punished and has taken steps to ensure the younger children are cared for."

The younger pair were fathered by Henderson during his relationship with Lumbley which has broken down since their arrest.

Mr Charles Crinion, for Henderson who now lives at Dunstall Avenue, Dunstall, maintained: "There is nothing to show for this offending. The money was spent on every day items."

Eaton, who lives with her mother at Darlaston Road and is now aged 21, was given a two-year community order with 120 hours unpaid work.

All three defendants admitted fraudulently evading excise duty.

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