A cafe owner who acted as a bootlegger's courier and sold illicit tobacco to his customers has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Customs and Excise officers made test purchases at Jeffrey Hodgson's transport cafe in Parry Lane, Laisterdyke, Bradford, and raided the premises in February last year.

Prosecutor Jonathon Gibson told Bradford Crown Court how staff at the cafe had been told by Hodgson to keep the money from the sale of contraband cigarettes and tobacco in a wooden box under the counter and not put it through the till.

He described how an officer visited the cafe and bought tobacco from Hodgson.

"The money went straight into Jeffrey Hodgson's back pocket and the change was taken out of the wooden box,'' he said.

Hodgson and his 29-year-old son, James, were both arrested and searches were carried out at the cafe and their homes. Mr Gibson said officers seized more than 14,000 cigarettes and more than 17 kilos of hand-rolling tobacco.

Hodgson, 62, also confessed that he kept goods in his car which he would sell to people in pubs and clubs.

Mr Gibson said in total Hodgson had admitted been involved in the evasion of duty of more than £140,000.

In a related inquiry it was also found that he had also failed to register his cafe for VAT for more than four years when its turnover exceeded the appropriate threshold. As a result he had not paid an estimated £51,000 in VAT.

Hodgson, of Parry Lane, Laisterdyke, pleaded guilty to offences involving the evasion of excise duty and a charge of failing to register for VAT, but his barrister Raymond Priest stressed that he had not made anywhere near the amounts of money being mentioned.

"What he did was to supplement his already meagre earnings by selling contraband tobacco,'' he said. "The enrichment to him was very, very much smaller than the amount that the Revenue has lost.''

James Hodgson, of Tyersal Avenue, Tyersal, Bradford, was given a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after he admitted being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of excise duty.

His barrister David Kelly said Hodgson had been effectively buying the cafe business and did not like what was going on but his father ignored his pleas to stop.