An elderly man was caught trying to smuggle over 400,000 undeclared cigarettes through Heathrow Airport to pay for his medical treatment. 

Vi Van Long, 67, of Childeric Road in Lewisham, said he was offered £5,000 to smuggle the cigarettes from Hanoi, Vietnam, to the UK. 

Long was arrested by airport border force officers on January 14 and later pleaded guilty to fraudulent evasion of duty. 

Woolwich Crown Court heard that Long arrived in the UK with a suitcase containing 12 large packages wrapped in cling film. 

When he was questioned by officers he said he had been on holiday to Vietnam, had nothing to declare, and that the packages contained tea. 

But inside the packages border force officers found 401,140 cigarettes for which he would have owed £197,868 in duty fees. 

Long later told police he had gone to Vietnam for medical treatment costing £9,000 because he was stuck on a lengthy NHS waiting list. 

"Someone introduced me to somebody who had a job where I could get £5,000,” he told the court on Monday (August 2). 

“I have never committed any crime before, this was the first time.” 

Recorder Jenni Dempster KC sentenced Long to 10 months custody suspended for 18 months. 

“That means you will not be sent to prison today, but here’s the warning. If in the next 18 months you commit any other offence, whether or not it’s the same type, you will be brought back to this court and it’s likely this sentence will be brought into operation,” she told him. 

Recorder Dempster also ordered the forfeiture and destructions of the cigarettes.