A CONVICTED smuggler who used a rented unit to hide millions of cigarettes has been successfully extradited from Spain and has now begun a four-year jail term.
Malcolm McGowan, 61, fled the UK 12 years ago after being found guilty of smuggling 28.3 million cigarettes into the country.
He was part of a gang that had carefully chosen and rented a storage facility in Wath as a quiet location where their activities would go unnoticed and which was close to the motorway network.
McGowan fled the UK and was sentenced in his absence in December 2001. He was finally arrested at a swimming pool in Valencia on the Costa Blanca last month by Spanish police and brought back to appear at Sheffield Crown Court from where he was sent to jail.
His Honour Judge Julian Goose QC, said: "You sought to evade justice and have been on the run for 12 years. You will now serve the four-year sentence you were given in 2001."
Around the time of McGowan’s arrest in 2000 a number of consignments of cigarettes were seized. In February 2000, customs officers examined three 40-ft containers at Tilbury Docks which had arrived from India, destined for Blackpool.
The contents were declared as ceiling tiles - but concealed 21 million smuggled cigarettes.
In the same month two lorries arrived at the unit in Wath which had arrived at Dover Ferry Port from France. The contents were declared as beds and concealed more than 3.3 million cigarettes.
The following month a container addressed to the same consignee in Blackpool was intercepted at Southampton Docks on its arrival from China. The contents were again declared as ceiling tiles, but concealed a further six million smuggled cigarettes.
