A Southampton bootlegger who defrauded the Treasury out of at least £90,000 in duty was jailed for 18 months at the city's crown court.

Stephen Smith, 45, had been smuggling contraband from trips to France and Belgium which he made on average almost once a week for two years.

The court heard that despite warnings from Customs officials, jobless Smith carried on bringing in wine, spirits, beer, cigarettes and tobacco, before he was finally arrested at his home on the city's Flower Estate.

Smith admitted he had taken money from family and friends to buy the goods and in return, kept cigarettes and drink for himself.

Prosecutor Helen Khan described how Smith made 99 cross-Channel trips by car, sometimes with a trailer, between May 1996 and September 1998, travelling either by ferry from Portsmouth, Hoverspeed from Dover or through the Channel Tunnel.

He also made one flight to the island of Tenerife.

Customs officers keeping observations on his home at Iris Road, Bassett, saw people arrive empty-handed but leave with goods.

Smith pleaded guilty to three charges of evading duty and in addition to the prison sentence, had his G-registeration Montego seized by Customs.

Passing sentence, Recorder Derwin Hope told Smith he had played an organising role in the importations and the case was so serious no other sentence than one of imprisonment could be justified.

Matthew Pardoe, defending, said it was not a sophisticated operation and Smith had made little out of it.

"In fact it has cost him because he knows what the outcome of this case will be and he is absolutely terrified. He has learned a lesson and only wishes he had realised the seriousness of what he was doing earlier.''

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