In California, Attorney General Bill Lockyer yesterday filed lawsuits against five tobacco retailers for selling cigarettes to minors via the internet, failing to report tobacco sales to California tax authorities and depriving the state of excise taxes. The complaints seek a combined total of at least $1 million in civil penalties.
The e-tailers were caught in a sting operation conducted by state investigators, which revealed that the companies including smokin4less and Dirt Cheap Cigarettes did not verify age on delivery, did not require a signature on delivery, and often merely tossed cigarettes on porches.
In the UK, a Banbury man who acted as a distributor of large quantities of smuggled tobacco and cigarettes bought over the internet for sale in the UK was jailed for four months at Oxford Crown Court yesterday.
Timothy Regan, 42, was caught out when Customs officers at Stansted Airport intercepted two pallets containing boxes of cigarettes weighing a total of almost 270 kg, addressed to individuals throughout the UK.
Regan pleaded guilty to four charges of evasion of excise duty totalling £60,000 by failing to declare the import of 380,000 cigarettes.