The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Thousands of dodgy cigs seized after officers smash their way into car
Officers swoop to find boxes filled with foreign cigarettes
Thousands of foreign cigarettes were taken off Peterborough streets when officers seized boxes filled to the brim with goods hidden in a car parked in a city street.
Cambridgeshire police, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Trading Standards and HMRC officers smashed their way in through the window of the Volkswagen hatchback in Huntley Grove near Peterborough city centre on Monday afternoon.
In the car they found plastic bags, holdalls and cardboard boxes filled with hundreds of packets of foreign cigarettes.
The packets included cigarettes from a variety of different brands, and appeared to originate from Eastern Europe.
The haul was mainly hidden from view by sheets and blankets on the back seat of the vehicle - but police officers smashed the front car window to examine the goods as some were visible from outside the car.
Now an investigation has been started by HMRC looking at the discovery, and who is responsible.
A spokesperson for Peterborough City Council said: “We can confirm that a quantity of cigarettes were seized from a car in Huntley Grove on Monday following work in conjunction with Cambridgeshire Police.
“The incident has been refereed to HMRC so that further investigations can be carried out.”
A spokesman for Cambridgshire police confirmed they had attended the incident, but only to offer support to HMRC and trading standards officers.
Last year Brett Wilkinson, Assistant Director, Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC, said the sale of illicit cigarettes and tobacco in the UK cost the country about £2.4 billion every year.
On Monday afternoon officers from the same teams had also carried out a warrant at a near-by shop.
Nothing was found in the store by the teams, and they left empty handed.
Anyone with information about the sale of illicit cigarettes and tobacco in Peterborough, or who has any information about the cigarettes seized from the car in Huntley Grove, is asked to call the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Trading Standards team on 01733 343434 or the HMRC Fraud Hotline on 0800 788 887.