A bootlegger cheated the taxpayer out of £76,000 as he ran weekly smuggling trips for his illegal tobacco and drinks trade, York Crown Court heard.

Black marketeer John Edward Barnett, 43, completed 30 trips to and from Calais in vehicles loaded with cheap drink and cigarettes over nine months.

But today (Fri) he is starting 12 months in jail after customs officers stopped him in Selby towards the end of yet another smuggling run.

"There was greed and a desire to make easy money," Judge Peter Charlesworth told him.

"It was obviously well planned and persistent.

"Of course it affects all of us because of the large amount of duty that was evade, nearly £76,000, and of course ordinary people who are running businesses, tobacconists, newsagents, shopkeepers who have to sell their cigarettes, and the off-licences who have to sell their alcohol at the proper prices suffer."

Barnett, of Abbots Road, Selby, pleaded guilty to six offences of evading customs duty.

Prosecuting, Peter Sabiston said customs officers stopped Barnett on Oaklands Way, Selby, with a Ford Escort full of smuggled goods on February 24 1999.

At his home they found stockpiles of hand-rolled tobacco, cigarettes, cigars, wine, beer and spirits in a disused toilet room and shed and a transit van parked outside.

The court heard he had paid £11,000 for the seized goods.

They also found a price list on his computer, order slips and other paperwork relating to his black marketeering and eight credit cards.

They estimated he had evaded paying £75,994 customs duty on 254,400 cigarettes, 9,360 cigars, 634 kg of hand-rolling tobacco, 34,400 litres of beer and wine, and 920 litres of spirits.

On average he had been smuggling once a week for nine months.

For Barnett, Fiona Dix-Dyer said the father of three had major financial problems.

He had run up credit card debts of £14,000 and the Inland Revenue had taken court action against him and a partner for £19,000 unpaid tax relating to a failed business.

His first French trips had been to buy cheap goods for the family, but as word got about that he was going regularly, he started buying for others.

"He estimates he had a profit of £100 to £200 a week which he used on making ends meet, trying to keep the family's heads above water," said Miss Dix-Dyer.

He used both the transit van and the Ford Escort for the trips.

Since his arrest, he had worked hard on his new business setting up and servicing burglar and fire alarms and had a £30,000 turnover in 12 months.