'Heavy smoker' stripped of 13,000 cigarettes
A PASSENGER who flew into Edinburgh Airport from Alicante in Spain with 12,800 cigarettes in his luggage told Customs officers they were for himself and that he was a heavy smoker.
But the officers did not believe the man's claim that the cigarettes and 9.6kg of hand-rolling tobacco was for personal use and confiscated the material.
Arthur Hill of St Catherine's Crescent, Dykehead, Shotts, appealed against the confiscation, but in a judgement at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Sheriff Andrew Lothian approved the forfeiture of the 6000 Mayfair, 6000 Superkings, 800 Silk Cut cigarettes, 6kg Drum, 2kg Van Nelle and 1.6 kg Turner hand-rolling tobacco.
Sheriff Lothian held that the materials had been obtained for commercial purposes.
Mr Hill initially said he smoked between 40 and 60 cigarettes a day, but later claimed it was 80 a day.
