A CREWMAN on Southampton's flagship liner QE2 has been jailed for nine months for smuggling nearly two million cigarettes into Britain.
Provisions manager Stephen Madden was arrested after Revenue and Customs officers swooped in Southampton Docks last October, following a tip-off that about 800,000 cigarettes were aboard the ship.
Madden, 42, had instructed his Filipino staff to help hide three separate consignments of the contraband in the liner's hold last year.
Prosecutor Tim Moores outlined how he had also smuggled more than 400,000 cigarettes and five kilos of tobacco in May. Two months later, he had a further 820,000 imported but it was a case of third time unlucky when he was arrested.
The three shipments involved a loss of revenue of about £350,000.
Madden, from Stafford, was convicted on three counts of fraudulently evading duty in his trial at the city crown court.
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