A MAN who oversaw a well-run and apparently profitable business selling counterfeit cigarettes has been jailed for 13 months.

David Hutchinson, 59, warehoused and supplied fake copies of popular brands of cigarettes to local doorstep sellers in the east Durham area.

Durham Crown Court heard among those he supplied the cigarettes to was his former partner Amanda Liu, who sold them to customers at the Chinese takeaway business she ran in Peterlee.

Liu, 42, the mother of Hutchinson’s son, received a six-month sentence, suspended for a year, with an order to perform 100-hours’ unpaid work.

Richard Bennett, prosecuting, said investigations into Hutchinson’s activities began in January 2015, as it was believed he was supplying counterfeit cigarettes to “tab houses” in the Peterlee area, including Liu’s New Century takeaway, near her home in Fulwell Road.

Surveillance was carried out on his home in Eden Lane, Peterlee, and at a smallholding he operated, in Florence View, in nearby Shotton Colliery, as well as at the takeaway, following an apparent delivery of stock by Hutchinson to Liu.

A series of test purchases went on to be made at the takeaway by an undercover investigator.

Mr Bennett said when the test purchaser asked about greater supplies, Liu told him she would have to speak to her “husband”. On his next visit she said she could supply, “as many as you want, as soon as I can get them.”

She later told him they had a supply of Embassy Regal, of particularly, “good quality”.

Mr Bennett said it led to simultaneous raids which yielded 4,291 packets of cigarettes and £8,500 in cash. Most of the 85,220 cigarettes were recovered from the Florence View site.

Hutchinson admitted three counts of selling counterfeit cigarettes, but only on the day of scheduled trial, on January 30, while Liu admitted seven counts of selling counterfeit goods.

Jeremy Barton, for Hutchinson, said the former recycling business manager would merely receive the cigarettes at Florence View, from where he “forwarded them to shops”.

But he added he had developed depression and become socially isolated in recent years.

Christopher McKee, for Liu, said she was merely the vendor, providing an outlet for Hutchinson’s supplies.

Jailing him, Judge Christopher Prince told Hutchinson: “You engaged in an apparently well organised, considered, and effective course of criminal conduct, designed to profit yourself.”

A proceeds of crime hearing will take place in August.