Smoker has duty to pay on foreign fags

[Nwicker60]

Former gasman should have known deal was 'dodgy'

A HEAVY smoker, who purchased a consignment of contraband cigarettes, was ordered by a sheriff to pay the tax he had evaded.
Ronald McGregor snapped up the offer of the cartons of foreign fags in a bargain deal while he was attending a football match in Glasgow, Wick Sheriff Court was told today.
However, he was stopped on by police, on April 5, on his return journey north and they discovered he had not paid the duty on the five thousands cigs which he bought for £800. They would have retailed, legitimately, for £1,190.
The court was told that the cigarettes were strictly for his own consumption and there as no question of him supplying them for profit.
Solicitor Neil Wilson said that the cigarettes were a foreign make and McGregor of Sanna, Sordale, Halkirk, should have known there was “something dodgy about them”.
Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood ordered McGregor, a retired gas worker, to repay the duty of £390 through a compensation order.