MORE than six tonnes of black market tobacco worth £1.7million in unpaid duty have been seized by Border Force.

Scanners detected anomalies with a Polish-registered lorry which arrived in the Port of Harwich on a ferry from the Hook of Holland.

Paperwork for the vehicle showed it should have contained apples.

Border Force officers inspected the vehicle’s trailer and found the loose tobacco was found piled up on ten pallets.

A man was arrested and the investigation referred to the relevant authorities.

Had the smuggling attempt not been detected, it would have cost the Treasury £1,737,480 in unpaid duty and VAT.

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Chris Philp, Minister for Immigration Compliance and the Courts, said: “This was a significant seizure of tobacco and I would like to pay tribute to the Border Force officers who uncovered the illegal cargo.

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“We simply won’t stand by and allow smugglers to flood the market with cheap and illegal tobacco, which defrauds the public purse and cheats honest traders.”

In October, Border Force had further success in stopping illicit cigarettes entering the UK when they seized nearly ten million black market cigarettes worth almost £3million in unpaid duty at Harwich.

Paperwork for the vehicle showed it should have contained dozens of washing machines, but only four appliances were onboard.

Border Force officers inspected the vehicle’s trailer and found huge pallets of shrink-wrapped Lambert and Butler silver cigarettes.

Border Force officers use hi-tech search equipment to combat immigration crime and detect banned and restricted goods that smugglers attempt to bring into the UK.