A man who is believed to have supplied vast quantities of illicit tobacco to individuals and unscrupulous retailers across Humberside has been jailed for two years.

Peter John Drewett was found guilty of evading an estimated £281,000 in unpaid duty at Grimsby Crown Court.

He had been caught red-handed at his lock-up garage, where officers discovered 195,000 cigarettes and a large quantity of hand rolling tobacco.

A further haul was also found in the boot of his car.

Some of the cigarettes were the cheap white brand Jin Ling.

On sentencing Drewett with fraudulent duty evasion, recorder Gittings said: “This was an operation on a grand scale, you were operating as a wholesaler and the quantities make you a commercial supplier.”