South Yorks lorry driver on-the-run for £1.3m fraud

Richard Curtis

A lorry driver from South Yorkshire is being hunted by customs officials after smuggling cigarettes into the country without paying duty of more than £1m

Richard Curtis who's from Bawtry was jailed in his absence for the crime after failing to turn up to court.

Richard Curtis's lorry was searched Credit:

His lorry was searched by Border Force and the cigarettes were discovered underneath his cargo of frozen chips.

Ilicit cigarettes were found underneath his cargo of frozen chips

The fraud was uncovered when Curtis’ lorry was stopped by Border Force after arriving on a ferry from Calais at the Kent port on 18 November 2013.

Curtis collected the frozen food while in Belgium before travelling back to Dover via Calais.

The smuggler told HMRC he had spent the weekend with an old girlfriend in Bruges, Belgium, before collecting the frozen food and travelling back to Dover via Calais. Curtis said he was unaware the lorry contained illicit cigarettes.

Curtis failed to appear at a pre-trial hearing in November 2016. He was found guilty of the fraudulent evasion of excise duty in his absence following a trial at Maidstone Crown Court in January and jailed for three years and nine months.