A WOOLSTON man has been jailed for masterminding a £200,000 cash smuggling operation.

John Parker will spend the next four years behind bars after he was found to have orchestrated a scheme attempting to smuggle more than £200,000 out of the country.

Edward Gardens resident Parker was also found with more than £350,000 worth of illicit tobacco when he was arrested in April.

The operation was uncovered in February when lorry driver Milos Dukic was stopped by border force officers in Dover as he attempted to board a ferry to Calais.

A search of Dukic’s cab uncovered £205,645 in bank notes hidden in a plastic bag – the £20, £10 and £5 notes weighed more than 14kg.

Dukic, of Ljubljana, Slovenia, was arrested on suspicion of money laundering and the matter was referred to HM Revenue and Customs.

Their investigation found that the cash was from an illegal tobacco scam orchestrated by Parker, with forensic evidence linking the 57-year-old to the plastic bag.

Parker was arrested in Bedfordshire in April as he unloaded 300 boxes of illegal tobacco, weighing 1.8 tonnes and worth more than £350,000 in evaded excise duty, from a lorry.

A bin liner in Parker’s car contained £125,000 intended as payment for the tobacco as well as another bag containing £16,000 for 63-year-old lorry driver Dragisa Jovanovic, who was also arrested.

Dukic was jailed for three years at Canterbury Crown Court today, Tuesday, after after admitting concealing and removing criminal property.

Parker and Jovanovic, a Serbian national living in Venice, Italy, were both jailed at Luton Crown Court on Tuesday July 19 after admitting fraudulent evasion of excise duty.

They received sentences of four years and two-and-a-half years respectively.

Alan Tully, assistant director of HMRC’s fraud investigation service, said: “Forensic investigation allowed us to link the cash found in the lorry’s cab back to the wider tobacco smuggling operation and put these men behind bars.

“Working with our agencies, HMRC will not hesitate to investigate those committing tax-related fraud and recover any proceeds from the crime to ensure that no one is beyond our reach.”