Cheese smuggler jailed

Cheese smuggler jailed

5 June 2005

London (Metro) - A food trader was jailed for 28 days for smuggling cheese. 88kg (about 194 lbs.) is a very large amount of food

Hussein Aref, 45, is the first person to be put behind bars for the illegal importation of food into Britain.

The Frenchman was caught by customs officers at Heathrow Airport with 88kg of hard cheese, hidden in four bags.

He was stopped as he walked through the green 'nothing to declare' channel.

Aref, travelling from Egypt, said he intended to sell half in Britain before taking the rest on to France. Uxbridge magistrates branded his actions 'a danger to the food chain'.

A customs spokesman said: 'Usually people get fines but 88kg is a very large amount of food.'


Rod Triftney, who tastes
contraband cheese for Customs,
declares this shipment as 'okay'.