RAF pair admit cigs smuggling charges

TWO North-East men are part of a gang of four RAF servicemen who have admitted smuggling more than a million cigarettes into the UK on military planes.

Senior Aircraftman Paul Garbutt, of Avon Grove, Billingham, near Stockton, and Corporal Stuart Helens, 31, formerly of Sunderland, but now living in Wiltshire, admitted being part of a gang that brought tobacco into RAF Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire, and RAF Lyneham, in Wiltshire.

The cigarettes were brought to the North-East and sold without paying customs duty.

Corporal Thomas Warren, 27, of Lyneham, and Sergeant Stuart Walker, 43, of Basingstoke, Hampshire, also admitted their part in the conspiracy.

Civilians Lisa Harrison, 35, of Sydney Road, Middlesbrough, Alison McCabe, 44, of Fielding Court, Billingham, and Christopher Garbutt, 25, of Knapton Avenue, Billingham, also admitted being part of the smuggling ring.

They earned up to £30,000 each before the operation was discovered.

Ian Dixey, prosecuting, told Bristol Crown Court that the servicemen exploited their position of trust.

He said they took advantage of the number of flights they made to bring large quantities of cigarettes into the country.

He added: “There was an ongoing arrangement to buy cigarettes abroad and smuggle them into this country via RAF flights and then distribute them without any tax having been paid in this country.

“The cigarettes were sold for substantially more than they cost the defendants. It was dishonest.”

Mr Dixey said the cigarettes were bought at UN bases, where US dollars was the preferred currency.

After being brought into the country, Christopher Garbutt was in charge of picking them up from the air bases.

The conspiracy was discovered when customs officers searched an aircraft after it landed at RAF Lyneham and found 950,000 cigarettes from Kabul in a cardboard box.

Helens arrived at the base to collect the shipment on April 29, last year, but he tried to get away after he heard the cigarettes had been found.

Security officials found 10,000 cigarettes in his car. He was arrested and police found a spreadsheet on his computer detailing the scam as well as £70,000 in cash.

Mother-of three Louisa Garbutt, of Avon Grove, Billingham, denies conspiring to cheat the public revenue and acquisition of criminal property.

Her trial continues.

The others will be sentenced at the conclusion of her trial.