Disgraced businessman Gerrard Strange last Friday started a 33-month prison sentence for his part in a professional cigarette smuggling operation.

The former managing director and chief executive of Bradford-based textile firm Listers has been jailed after he used a successful furniture importation business as a front to smuggle millions of "bootleg'' cigarettes from Poland.

Strange, 49, and his finance director Richard Ramsden, 34, were both arrested in January when Customs officers swooped on the Greenroyd Mills premises of Eurotrend Furniture UK Ltd in Sutton-in-Craven.

Prosecutor Jonathon Gibson told Bradford Crown Court how a Polish-registered lorry had arrived carrying a consignment of sofas, but officers discovered that thousands 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.

The court heard the two consignments involved a total loss of duty of just over £300,000 and Strange went on to admit that 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 and confiscation orders being made.

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

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

Added 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 in the most seductive way."