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OAP caught with 4,000 cigarettes at airport claims they were for personal use  

A PENSIONER caught bringing almost 4,000 cigarettes into Scotland from Spain claimed he smoked 100 cigarettes-a-day in a bid to avoid paying tax on them.

Retired engineer Robert Stevenson said his chain-smoking habit meant the cigarettes were for personal use and denied he was importing them for "commercial purposes".

But a sheriff rejected his claim, and said he did not believe the 65-year-old had the money or the time to smoke five packets a day – equal to one cigarette every ten minutes.

Mr Stevenson, from Tweed Street, Grangemouth, was stopped by customs officers at Edinburgh Airport in January 2008 after returning from a three-day trip to Malaga.

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