A BUSINESSMAN who sold more than 2,000 bootleg cigarettes a day has been jailed for four months.

Mark Rayner, 30, of Gladstone Street, Sunderland, was arrested on February 16, following a raid on his shop, in Southwick Road.

Customs officers seized 23,000 cigarettes and 15 kilos of hand-rolling tobacco.

Rayner was arrested again and charged following a further raid, on March 2, when 12,500 cigarettes and 1.5 kilos of tobacco were recovered.

The tax due was almost £22,000.

At an earlier hearing, Rayner said he sold between 2,000 and 3,000 cigarettes each day.

He admitted possessing and selling cigarettes without duty, and was jailed at Sunderland Magistrates' Court yesterday for four months each on two counts of selling smuggled cigarettes.

The sentences will run concurrently.

The magistrate told Rayner: "This is a message to the people of Sunderland that this sort of offence is not acceptable."

Customs spokesman Rob Hastings-Trew said: "This is a case of a man who did not heed the warnings given - now he is in jail."