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19/03/2009
Quarter Of Cigs Smoked Are Illegal
The Director of Public Prosecutions has said one in every four cigarettes smoked in Ireland are contraband.
Director of Public Prosecutions James Hamilton said the amount of criminality involved was "staggering".
"We are dealing with a staggering scale of criminality when you think about it," he said.
Mr Hamilton said he was shocked at the illegal tobacco trade's scope, which was costing the public purse €500m every year.
The prosecutions director made the revelations while speaking at an EU anti-fraud conference in Dublin Castle.
He said the half billion euro in lost revenue would be better in the State coffers than in criminal coffers, particularly in the present economic circumstances.
An increasing number of counterfeit cigarettes being shipped in, generally from the Far East, were also posing an extra serious health threat to smokers because of the unknown contents among the tobacco, he warned.
See: Conference Highlights Cross-Border Crime
(DW/BMcC)
Director of Public Prosecutions James Hamilton said the amount of criminality involved was "staggering".
"We are dealing with a staggering scale of criminality when you think about it," he said.
Mr Hamilton said he was shocked at the illegal tobacco trade's scope, which was costing the public purse €500m every year.
The prosecutions director made the revelations while speaking at an EU anti-fraud conference in Dublin Castle.
He said the half billion euro in lost revenue would be better in the State coffers than in criminal coffers, particularly in the present economic circumstances.
An increasing number of counterfeit cigarettes being shipped in, generally from the Far East, were also posing an extra serious health threat to smokers because of the unknown contents among the tobacco, he warned.
See: Conference Highlights Cross-Border Crime
(DW/BMcC)
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