A TEESSIDE man was jailed yesterday following an investigation by Customs officers in Glasgow into attempts to smuggle up to 75 million cigarettes.

Nashtar Singh, 35, of The Wynd, Wynyard Park, Billingham, who stored and distributed the cigarettes once they had been imported, was sentenced to four years.

James Nisbet, 53, of Lanarkshire - the mastermind at the UK-end of the smuggling organisation - was sentenced to four-and-a-half years.

The two men were convicted at Manchester Crown Court of the evasion of duty and VAT payable on at least ten separate importations of cigarettes.