A convicted tax fraudster jailed after masterminding a plot to smuggle millions of illegal cigarettes into the UK has been ordered to repay more than half a million pounds. Svajunas Navagruckas, 52, was jailed for more than two years in February 2021 for leading an organised crime network that was caught with 8.5 million cigarettes stashed in window frames and laundry bags at a farm in Lincoln.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) investigators seized the tobacco haul, worth £2.8million in evaded duty, but during the investigation, Mr Navagruckas returned to Lithuania. He was charged with conspiracy to evade excise duty and a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) was issued.
He was returned to the UK in July 2020, after being arrested by Lithuanian authorities. Now Mr Navagruckas, who pleaded guilty in Nottingham Crown Court to evading excise duty in August 2020, has been ordered to pay £551,320 within three months, or face another five years behind bars.
