AVAST behind! Smuggling of alcohol and tobacco is costing this country almost £5.5 billion per year!

The latest report by Revenue and Customs (HMRC) reveals that one-in-eight bottles of spirits consumed during 2008's festive season and one-in-six cigarettes smoked were likely to have been smuggled into Britain, confirming the annual estimate of lost revenue (also including hand-rolled tobacco and petrol).

The figures show that the share of contraband alcohol increased during the previous year (from one-in-ten to one-in-eight), whilst the trade in illicit 'smokes' also rose.

The Government is committed to clamping down upon the smuggling of cheap cigarettes, thanks to reports that poorer smokers are increasingly prone to quit the 'pernicious weed', if prices increase.

Last October, a report, published in the British Medical Journal, maintained that cheap cigarettes and other tobacco-products smuggled into the country were responsible for no less than 4,000 premature deaths (four times the number caused by illegal drugs!).

(Professor Robert West's study found that, if smuggling were terminated, tobacco-prices would rise by about 12% [a price-increase would encourage over 5% of smokers to quit, he added]).

Matthew Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat spokesman for the Treasury, lambasted the statistics regarding the loss of revenue caused by contraband activities as "shocking", averring: "HMRC's upper estimate of the annual revenue-loss totals nearly £5.5 billion.

"This is almost £100 for every man, woman and child: it's enough to pay every pensioner a £500 Christmas bonus every year."

The figures in HMRC's annual report are based on the General Household Survey, the figures of which record that one-in-eight bottles of spirits consumed (amounting to 40 million litres) was illegal and that one-in-six cigarettes (11 billion out of 64 billion) was also smuggled into the country.

(Statistics also showed that  more than 50% of all hand-rolled tobacco entered Britain illegally).

However, HMRC admitted that it was unable to estimate accurately the amount of revenue lost, as a result of illicitly-imported beer.

In 2000, the Government announced a strategy to counter tobacco-smuggling, but it is being pressurised to emulate other European countries and sign agreements with the tobacco companies, Philip Martin International and Japan Tobacco International, to ensure that it controls distribution and stop supplying contractors which have links to smuggling.

In November, 2008, the National Audit Office criticised Revenue and Customs, on account of its revelation that Britain was one of the easiest places to bring in counterfeit goods in the whole of the EU (European Union).

The watchdog reported "lax surveillance at border-crossings" and stated that only 1% of goods entering this country was physically inspected by officers.

Responsibility for countering smuggling is scheduled to be taken on by the the UK Borders Agency.