A pensioner was jailed yesterday for setting up a black market operation with his National Lottery winnings.

John Atkinson, 65, used the £2,000 windfall to start selling cigarettes illegally, and ended up owing almost £50,000 in duty.

He said that he had started the enterprise, which ran for about two years, after he lost his job at Rentokil because of health problems.

Newcastle Crown Court heard that he had been having trouble managing without a pension, and he had begun the illegal dealing out of greed.

He admitted keeping goods with intent to defraud, and being knowingly concerned with goods with intent to defraud.

The court heard that Atkinson suffers from emphysema, asthma, arthritis and angina, and cares for his 62-year-old wife.

Glen Gatland, mitigating, said Atkinson, of Ilford Place, Gateshead, had led a blameless life until the offences.

He asked the court to consider a non-custodial sentence, but Judge Judith Moir sentenced him to nine months imprisonment.

Judge Moir said: "This is a very serious matter. We are talking about evading a duty of something in the region of £50,000, even in your account, and you making a profit over a substantial and prolonged period of time - it seems something in the region of £300 to £350 a month.

"It was organised, it was planned and it continued over a length of time.

"You knew what you were doing was illegal, and you knew what you were doing."