How did illegal tobacco cost a stewardess her job?
A 37-year-old air stewardess's career was left in tatters after
she was caught abusing her position to smuggle cigarettes through
customs.
Wendy Rutterford, 37, abused her position as a stewardess for
Eastern Airways by regularly slipping through customs with
thousands of pounds-worth of cigarettes hidden in her suitcase.
However, her tobacco trafficking scam went up in smoke after
shop staff, who became suspicious of her regularly buying duty-free
goods in bulk, alerted the authorities.
Customs officers swooped in to arrest Wendy on her return to
Tyneside from Norway, where she was found carrying 3,000 cigarettes
in her bag. Further background checks revealed that she had made a
series of purchases over a five-month period as she flew in and out
of Newcastle.
Over the course of the swindle, Wendy smuggled more than 6,000
cigarettes through customs, cheating the taxman out of nearly
£1,300.
As a result she was convicted of three counts of fraudulently
evading excise duty and consequently lost her job with Eastern
Airways.
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