A MAN who had previously been stopped trying to smuggle tobacco into the country was arrested with two sisters carrying 48,000 cigarettes, a court heard yesterday.

Scott Wilkes was stopped with Sarah Pollard, 23, and Elizabeth Pollard, 30, at Durham Tees Valley Airport on February 27.

The sisters, of Eskdale Road and Woodhouse Road respectively, both in Guisborough, east Cleveland, were ordered by Darlington magistrates to pay £2,447.20 each in duty, and were fined £250 and ordered to pay £65 costs.

Wilkes, 27, of Dorman Road, Eston, Middlesbrough, who has been stopped for three similar incidents, has yet to be sentenced.

The court heard that between 2003 and last year, he tried to bring in 31,600 cigarettes and 7.5kg of tobacco, once at North Shields, North Tyneside, and twice at Coventry Airport.

Angela Philip, prosecuting, told the court the sisters said they had travelled from Barcelona via Paris.

Wilkes told officers he had flown to Paris earlier that morning from Leeds-Bradford Airport.

Ms Philip said: "The trip was organised and planned, but it was not a sophisticated organisation."

Chris Bunting, representing the sisters, said they had not been in trouble before.

He said that had they been travelling alone, the cigarettes would have been confiscated and that they would not have been arrested.

He said: "It has been a salutatory and sobering experience for both of them. They were both shocked when they found themselves handcuffed."

Rob Hutchinson, for Wilkes, said he had been in financial strife.

Wilkes was bailed and will be sentenced on May 16 at Darlington.

All three pleaded guilty to the fraudulent evasion of duty.