SECURITY staff seized almost 25,000 cigarettes from a mother and daughter as they tried to take them through a North-East airport.

Heavy smokers Sharon Dryden, 42, and daughter Amanda, 22, tried to bring the cigarettes through Newcastle Airport.

Mother-of-two Mrs Dryden said the tobacco, bought in Barcelona, would have kept her going for five months.

But airport baggage checkers suspected she planned to sell the cigarettes.

Mrs Dryden, who is now out of pocket by almost £4,000, said: "That's the Christmas money gone.

"I'd remortgaged the house to pay for redecorations and had some money left over, so thought I'd put it to good use and stock up on cigarettes for the next few months."

The mother-and-daughter, who live together in Kibblesworth, near Gateshead, smoke at least 700 cigarettes a week, costing at least £25 a day.

Mrs Dryden said the cigarettes were for their own personal use and not for re-sale.

Easyjet flight staff told Mrs Dryden, a public transport operator, that she could import as many cigarettes as she wanted, so long as they were for herself.

She was allowed to take them through Barcelona Airport after she paid a 52 Euro fee to cover the excess weight of the tobacco.

Between them, Mrs Dryden and her daughter packed 24,920 cigarettes and a kilogram of rolling tobacco.

When they landed in Newcastle, Customs took everything from them other than their dirty washing and a bottle of rum.

Ms Dryden, who works for a property developer, said: "It was the most humiliating thing which ever happened to me. Customs went through all my underwear and left it lying there for everyone to see.

"Then a Customs man said I'd have to see him in his office.

"He said he was taking all the cigarettes off us."