TWO people who tried to smuggle nearly four million counterfeit cigarettes into Britain through Southampton docks have been jailed.

Thi Nguyen, 31 and Hung Pham, 39, both Vietnamese immigrants, pleaded guilty at Winchester Crown Court on Friday to the fraudulent invasion of duty.

Nguyen was jailed for two years, Pham was sent to jail for 18 months. Both are from London.

The court heard that customs officers inspected a 20-foot container that arrived on board MV Dusseldorf Express on October 17 last year. Records showed it should have held a consignment of shoes from Hong Kong but inside was only one box of shoes and 390 boxes of cigarettes in the Benson and Hedges, Marlboro and Marlboro Light brands.

Linda Litchfield, prosecuting, said the total duty owed was £532,346.50.

Customs allowed the consignment to pass and an undercover officer drove it to its intended destination in London on November 13.

The following day Nguyen and Pham were arrested with part of the consignment along with a customer Firat Mayil, 24, a Turkish-born off-licence owner.

Chris Van Hagen, defending Nguyen said she had been a refugee from Vietnam to Hong Kong. While in Hong Kong she had become ensnared to money lenders. After she settled in Britain they said she could clear her debts by helping to arrange the illegal importation.

Sentencing yesterday, Judge Keith Cutler said: "This was a sophisticated and well planned operation, the customs are to be congratulated on their work. The scale of the operation was so great that anyone involved must face a prison sentence.

Mayil of Tottenham, London was fined £10,000.