This article is from page 18 of the 2007-10-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 18 JPG
FOUR people who brought thou- sands of cigarettes home from their holidays have been fined in court.
Jean and Anthony Keogh, of Clounanna, Patrickswell, Limerick, appeared before Shannon District Court last week, arising out of an in- cident last December.
A Customs and Excise officer at Shannon airport told the court that Jean Keogh had more than 13,000 cigarettes, with Anthony Keogh had more than 12,000 cigarettes, on De- cember 13, 2006.
They had arrived in Shannon, from Malaga.
Jean Keogh told the court she was pleading guilty and said the ciga- rettes were for family.
The officer said he believed the
cigarettes were for resale as she told him it was her tenth trip to Spain that year and she is a non-smoker.
The customs officer said Anthony Keogh’s cigarettes “were not sourced in an official outlet in Spain’. He said that 800 cigarettes are allowed, per passenger.
Both were fined €500.
In a separate case, John and Mar- tina Reape, of Caladashan, Knock- more, Ballina, Mayo, were stopped after they arrived from Gran Canaria with more than 11,000 cigarettes, in October 2005.
Their solicitor said most of the cigarettes were a Spanish brand and that they had stocked up on cheap cigarettes. He said both accused were “very heavy smokers” and the cigarettes were not destined for sale. Both were fined €200.