A Sutton-in-Craven business was used as a front to smuggle millions of "bootleg" cigarettes into Britain.

On the surface the Greenroyd Mill business of Eurotrend Furniture UK Ltd was an import business. But the reality was that millions of cigarettes were being smuggled into the country from Poland, packed into sofas and chairs.

The operation ended in January this year when police swooped on the Sutton-in-Craven mill.

This week businessman Gerrard Strange started a 33-month prison sentence for his part in the professional cigarette smuggling operation.

Strange, 49, and his finance director Richard Ramsden, 34, were both arrested when Customs officers swooped on the Greenroyd Mill.

Prosecutor Jonathon Gibson told Bradford Crown Court last Thursday how a Polish-registered lorry had arrived carrying a consignment of sofas, but officers discovered that thousands of sleeves of cigarettes had been hidden inside them.

Just under 1.2 million cigarettes were seized and Mr Gibson said the duty evaded on them amounted to £213,900.

Later that same day another lorry arrived with a further 500,000 cigarettes hidden in the sofas.

Strange went on to admit there had been a further six deliveries to the premises in the preceding four months.

Mr Gibson told Judge Roger Scott that the total duty evaded was estimated to be in excess of £665,000 and Strange accepted being paid between £2.50 and £3 for each sleeve of cigarettes.

Strange, who was said to have houses in South Africa and Ireland as well as his home in Glenhurst Road, Shipley, could have earned himself around £22,000 from the deliveries made in January and the court heard he had already pocketed between £25,000 and £30,000 from the previous consignments.

Back in April, Strange, who is married with two sons, pleaded guilty to a charge of being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of duty on cigarettes. He also asked for six similar offences to be taken into consideration.

Ramsden, of Buckstone Garth, East Morton, admitted a similar charge in relation to the first lorry which arrived at premises in January. But Ramsden's barrister Andrew Woolman stressed that his client had only become aware of the presence of the cigarettes about an hour before the lorry arrived.

Judge Scott told Ramsden he had initially considered jailing him for four to six months, but after reading a glowing reference from a senior manager at the bank where he used to work he had decided to sentence him to 120 hours' community service work.

Both men, who had no previous convictions, still face a further hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act which could result in confiscation orders being made against them.

Barrister Gerald Hendron outlined details of Strange's successful business career in the textile industry.

In 1991 he set up a manufacturing business in his native Ireland and then moved on to become the operations manager at Listers Mill in Bradford. He eventually became managing director and chief executive, earning £100,000 a year and when the firm went into administration he was involved in the management buy-out of the velvet operation.

In 2001 he started working as a textile agent, again earning in excess of £100,000 a year before identifying an emerging market in furniture through his contacts in Poland. After setting up Eurotrend the company obtained high-profile customers such as Marks and Spencer and it was being run as an efficient and successful business.

Mr Hendron said Strange had rejected earlier advances to get involved with cigarette smuggling, but eventually he "succumbed to temptation".

"His role was clearly an important one, but he was not the head of this organisation," argued Mr Hendron.

The court heard Eurotrend had subsequently been liquidated in the wake of the Customs inquiry.

"This man succumbed to temptation late in life and he would agree that it was human failing and human weakness that got him involved in this," said Mr Hendron. "The effect of these proceedings, in my submission, is that they have effectively ruined his personal life and his family are devastated. His business career and reputation are in tatters."

Judge Scott told Strange: "It is a tragedy for you and your family. Money talks and sometimes money talks in the most seductive way and for some reason with all your three houses in various parts of the world you succumbed to greed."

He described Eurotrend as a "good little business", but said Strange had thrown it all away for a few million cigarettes and the £50,000 he could have made from the smuggling operation.