Former football chief scores tax fraud own goal

A former football club chief executive has been jailed for five-and-a-half years after admitting to not paying duty on £4.5m-worth of cigarettes.

A former football club chief executive has been jailed for five-and-a-half years after admitting to not paying duty on £4.5m-worth of cigarettes.

Guy Simpson, 52, who was chief executive of West Midlands non-league team Halesowen Town, was charged after he tried to smuggle 21 million fake Regal cigarettes through Southampton port in 2008.

The cigarettes were on board a cargo vessel from China. Import documents claimed the ship’s containers instead held exercise gym balls.

Customs said it was the largest cigarette haul ever uncovered in Southampton.

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