Beer smuggling is on the increase in Yorkshire, claims a new survey.

Figures compiled by the Brewers and Licensed Retailers Association (BLRA) estimated thousands of heavily-laden vans made the journey to the county from Calais in northern France over the year.

Leeds and Sheffield were among the most popular destinations for the smugglers, with 4,110 vans visiting Leeds and 6,970 vans visiting Sheffield - an increase on 1998 figures.

Buying cheap beer in France, where duty is around one-eighth of that in the UK, is not an offence if it is for personal use in Britain.

But importing it for re-sale constitutes smuggling and the BLRA estimates the 'van man' trade in illegal beer is growing massively.

Since the Single Market for Europe was formed in 1993 - allowing free personal imports of beer - the BLRA has charted the rise of 'van man' through undercover surveillance in Calais and other French ports, logging the loading of large quantities of beer bought at French duty-paid prices.

The industry group said today that many smugglers were getting wise to the attention Customs officers paid to larger vans and were switching to less conspicuous small vans, people carriers and estate cars.

The BLRA's intelligence estimated that the South East was the most likely destination for beer-runners, with more than 12,600 vans estimated to have headed into London alone.

Northern cities were the second most popular destination and more than one in six of the beer-runners came from the Midlands.

A BLRA spokesman said: "Six years into the Single Market and the flood of beer coming across the Channel is still increasing.

"The beer-runners are well-organised and are cheating the country out of millions of pounds of taxes. And with such a massive rise in the number of vans in 1999, the market for the selling of this beer must be one of the fastest growing retail sectors in the UK."

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