A CIGARETTE smuggler was ordered to pay more than £4 million within six months or face a further five years in prison.

Laurence Myers (58), of Park Lane, Whitefield, was made subject of a confiscation order for £4.4 million at Sheffield Crown Court last Friday following his conviction for the evasion of duty on more than 30 million smuggled cigarettes.

The court heard that in June 2003, customs officers stopped a lorry carrying a load of what appeared to be rotten fruit at King George's Dock, Hull.

However, on further inspection, officers discovered the fruit was hiding a haul of 1,099,200 cigarettes.

A paper trail led to Myers and forensic analysis of documents found at his house showed he had been involved in the trading of 32 million cigarettes smuggled into the UK and sold illegally over nine months. He had evaded duty of £3.8 million.

While on bail for those offences, Myers was again arrested in Manchester with 826,360 cigarettes and a quantity of tobacco, having evaded duty of £118,000.

In May 2006, Myers pleaded guilty to three charges relating to cigarette smuggling and was jailed for two years.

He was later sentenced to a further 30 months in prison for the Manchester offence.

Myers is a bankrupt but the court heard he had access to large sums of money that he had not informed authorities about and had used this money to fund a luxury lifestyle.