A BUSINESSMAN has gone on the run after being found guilty of smuggling millions of cigarettes into the UK inside a shipment of hollowed-out logs.

Paul Stanley, 39, was found guilty last month of using a scrap business he ran on Tyneside as cover to import 6.7 million contraband cigarettes into the country.

He was granted bail on condition he reported to police, lived at his mother's house in Axwell Park, Blaydon, Gateshead, surrendered his passport and did not apply for travel documents.

But Stanley, who was due to be sentenced tomorrow, failed to report to police on October 26.

It is understood that ports and airports have been alerted to be on the look out for him, but police declined to give any more details about the hunt for him.

Stanley's illicit cargo, which would have evaded £1.8m in excise duty, was discovered when the cargo ship MV Kapten arrived at Goole, Humberside, from St Petersburg, in Russia, in November 2002.

Customs officials carrying out a routine inspection of the shipment found that many of the 701 pine logs had been bored out, filled with Sovereign and Viceroy cigarettes and re-sealed.

The shipment was bound for Alan Blair Demolition, in Swalwell, Gateshead, which is involved in the scrap industry in the UK and aboard.

Although Stanley was an undischarged bankrupt and not a director, he was running the company when the delivery was made.

At Newcastle's Moot Hall on Tuesday, Judge Tony Lancaster issued a warrant for Stanley's arrest. He will be sentenced in his absence at Newcastle Crown Court tomorrow.