NORTH-EAST customs officers last night revealed the true scale of tobacco smuggling in the region.

The latest figures show that between April 2000 and March this year, more than 45 million contraband cigarettes were confiscated in the region, compared to 17 million the year before.

However, the record seizures only confirm the massive problem facing customs chiefs.

The North-East is Britain's biggest market for smuggled tobacco, and customs chiefs have urged the public to help them stamp out black market traders who are costing the country millions.

Their appeal came on the same day judges cut the jail sentence handed down to a North-East man caught smuggling nearly five million cigarettes. John Hartley, 50, of Donelm Road, Thornley, County Durham, pleaded guilty in 1999, at Teesside Crown Court, to evading import duty.

The charge involved 4,886,800 cigarettes on which excise duty of £632,718 should have been paid,

Hartley was jailed for four years, but yesterday at the Appeal Court his lawyers successfully argued the sentence was excessive.

The cigarettes were taken to a site in Suffolk. Hartley - who was responsible for distributing the contraband - was traced because the pallets contained the address of his company.

Cutting his jail term to three years, the judges said they took into account his previous good character, his guilty plea and exemplary work record.

However, one tobacconist, who asked not to be named, said: "What kind of signal does this send out when we are trying to stamp this thing out?".

Huge amounts of rolling tobacco have been seized in the North-East, including one massive shipment of 22 tonnes of tobacco from China.

As well as the illegal goods, 140 vehicles used for transporting the smuggled cigarettes and tobacco were confiscated in the last year, with more than 100 not returned to their owners, thanks to new national policy.

Customs spokesman for the region, Rob Hastings-Trew, said: "These figures do not take into account those cigarettes discovered in other areas of the country which were en route to the North-East.

"The region continues to be targeted by the criminal gangs who are responsible for eight out of ten smuggled cigarettes, and although we are naturally delighted with these seizures, we are by no means complacent."

Customs officials want to build on their success with the continued help of local people.

Mr Hastings-Trew said: "The people of the North-East have clearly demonstrated their support.

"Customs receive more calls to our confidential hot-line from the North-East than from any other region of the country."

The record seizures were last night welcomed by British American Tobacco, which produces more than 20 billion cigarettes a year at its Rothmans factory in Darlington.

Gareth Davis, of BAT, described customs officers' success as "a significant achievement"