A Southall cash and carry owner, who was found with more than £500,000 worth of unpaid duty tobacco products, has been jailed for two years and four months.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) officers visited Quality Foods in Southall on three occasions. In January 2011, they seized 270 kilos of non-duty paid tobacco, along with Indian hand-rolling cigarettes.

In December 2011, they found and seized 2,500 kilos of chewing tobacco, 5 kilos of shisha tobacco and almost 18 litres of spirits.

The owner of Quality Foods, Pius Sedani, was given formal warnings for selling illegal tobacco and alcohol on each visit.

On the third visit in November 2012, he admitted to evading £580,000 in duty and VAT on 3,250 kilos of hand-rolling, chewing and shisha tobacco. He wanted to get off with just another formal warning.

On 22 July 2013 Sedani was sentenced to two years and four months imprisonment at the Central Criminal Court and ordered to payback £278,196 by 5 August 2013, or face a further three years in jail.

HMRC Assistant Director, John Pointing, said: "Sedani was given two warnings, but persisted in selling non-duty paid goods. We cannot allow people to consider themselves above the law, and we will not hesitate to take formal action against those who do so."