A BOOTLEGGER who had two cars and a van travelling to Europe twice a week to bring in contraband cigarettes and alcohol was jailed for 12 months yesterday.

Adrian Meggs's vehicles were logged at the Channel Tunnel 100 times in a year, said Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, for Customs and Excise.

Investigators and officers from Cleveland Police raided his home in Seaton Carew, Teesside, where they seized shuttle tickets, his stock and shopping lists, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Meggs, 32, a machine operator, admitted 50 trips to the continent by himself and drivers, who he paid £40 a run.

Meggs admitted his average trip involved 300 litres of beer, 180 litres of wine and 12 kilos of tobacco, much of it ordered.

He said he had been supplying goods since the middle of 1998.

But, in November 1997, he was given a written warning after customs officers at Manchester Airport caught him with 17,000 cigarettes when he arrived from Tenerife.

Meggs, of Bilsdale Road, Seaton Carew, pleaded guilty to four charges of evading a total of £72,306 in duty.

Judge Judith Moir told him: "This was essentially a commercial enterprise, and you accepted that financial gain was your sole motivating factor."