A Tottenham man is one of two men jailed for trading smuggled tobacco.

Hasan Koc, 50 of Willoughby Lane, Tottenham, was arrested by Customs Officers as he tried to buy the illegal goods in a hotel car park in North Stifford, Essex in March 2014.

HMRC said that during the subsequent search of Koc’s home, 124,200 Marlboro Red cigarettes and 6.6kgs of hand rolling tobacco were found and seized, worth around £35,000.

David Margree, assistant director of the HMRC Fraud Investigation Service, said: “Tobacco smuggling is damaging the British economy, depriving the public of money that could be invested in our local services.

“It has a devastating impact on legitimate retailers having to compete with the black market economy, and people purchasing so-called bargain priced tobacco have no idea they are buying counterfeit goods.”

Ivo Pocheliev, 40 of Brookscroft, Croydon, was also jailed for trying to sell the tobacco to Koc.

A search of the van and self-storage unit used by Pocheliev revealed almost 610kg of Golden Virginia hand rolling tobacco, worth an estimated £105,000.

The two men were sentenced on Friday, 13 November 2015, at Basildon Crown Court. Both Koc and Pocheliev received 20 months in prison.