€30k loss to State from smuggled cigs, tobacco

Customs officers caught a Polish man with €42,000 worth of smuggled cigarettes and tobacco for sale in Cork and yesterday he was sentenced to a suspended two-year jail term and 240 hours of community service.

Leszek Ceglarski of Woodbrook Cottage, Berrings, Co Cork, was sentenced by Judge David Riordan at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

He pleaded guilty to keeping the products without payment of import duty for the purpose of sale on February 5, 2014 in a car at Clogheenmilcon, Blarney, and a similar charge in relation to tobacco and cigarettes at his home. Loss of revenue to the State was over €30,000.

Defence barrister Vincent McKechnie said Ceglarski had a plastering business since arriving in Cork eight years ago but for the last five years was unemployed, after the economic downturn.

The judge said: “He is a person who may have an entrepreneurial spirit. He entered into an activity effectively subsidised by the taxpayer. I am satisfied he was running a business in the manner described, which merits a custodial sentence but this must be balanced with his good character."

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