A GANG which flooded the North-East with an estimated 12 million bootleg cigarettes has received prison sentences totalling 13-and-a-half years.

Only one of the five-strong group is behind bars starting his sentence, however, as the remaining quartet were not present for their four-day trial at Durham Crown Court and are believed to be in their native Lithuania.

A bench warrant was issued for their arrest after they failed to appear at a previous hearing.

It is understood international arrest warrants will now be sought by HM Revenues and Customs (HMRC) to ensure they are brought to justice.

The trial went ahead in the absence of all but Egidijus Kairys, a Lithuanian scaffolder and hod-carrier, who is settled with his family in this country.

Forty-three-year-old Kairys, of Romford, east London, was one of four ‘labourers’ who were caught in the act unloading smuggled cigarettes, hidden in a consignment of wooden cable drum discs, delivered the previous day, when Customs officers swooped on a unit at Pontop Business Park, Harelaw Industrial Estate, near Stanley, on April 15, 2016.

A fifth man, gangmaster Dainius Pranskaitis, was also present and, along with the others, was arrested.

Simon Clegg, prosecuting, said 1.26 million cigarettes, Winston Blue-branded products, delivered from Ukraine, were recovered from the unit, all contraband products, on which there would have been a £368,000 loss to the Treasury, if sold legally.

But he told the court it was believed to have been one of up to ten such deliveries to the North-East handled by members of the gang since December 2013, bringing in a total of 12 million non-UK duty paid cigarettes, denying the Treasury of £3.6m.

All five defendants previously denied a charge of conspiring to deal in goods on which duty had not been paid, between December, 2013, and April, 2016.

The defendants claimed they were unaware any cigarettes present in the warehouse were not legitimately imported.

But after unanimous guilty verdicts were returned against all five, Judge Simon Hickey said they were convicted on “overwhelming evidence”.

He jailed 45-year-old Pranskaitas, a courier and film security guard, for four-and-a-half years, his 25-year-old nephew, Kristupas Strasunskas, a student, for 18 months, Linas Bernotas, 46, for two-and-a-half years, and his 23-year-old son Haroldas, also a student, for two years.

Kairys, who helped recruit some of the gang, was jailed for three years.

Eden Noblett, assistant director of the HMRC’s fraud investigation service, described it as, “a sophisticated operation that flooded the North-East with illegal cigarettes.”

He said their activities harmed legitimate hardworking businesses.

“Disrupting criminal trade is at the heart of our strategy to clamp down on the illicit tobacco market.”

Anyone with information about tobacco fraud is asked to ring the HMRC’s Fraud Hotline, on 0800-788887.