A FUGITIVE who smuggled 6.7 million cigarettes inside hollowed-out logs is behind bars after he was found hiding out in a Spanish holiday resort.

Scrap metal dealer Paul "Jimmy" Stanley fled the country after he was convicted in November 2004 of using his business as cover to smuggle the cigarettes.

The 40-year-old, of Axwell Park, Blaydon, Tyneside, had brought the cigarettes, which would have earned the Government £1.8m in tax, into Tyneside from St Petersburg, Russia.

Stanley was bailed as he waited to be sentenced and went on the run, using a fake passport to leave the country.

More than a year later, he was stopped for a routine identity check near his new home in Torremolinos, Spain, and identified.

Metropolitan Police officers flew to Spain to arrest him and, last week, he was flown into Heathrow and brought to Newcastle Crown Court.

He has been jailed for six years for smuggling and seven months for absconding while on bail. Christopher Dorman O' Gowan, prosecuting, said: "Sentencing was adjourned on completion of his trial on November 2, 2004.

"The defendant did not surrender to bail and a warrant was issued. The defendant had gone to Spain and, put shortly, he was stopped by Spanish police in or near Torremolinos.

"The position is, he gave the police false details and showed a fake passport."

The police were suspicious, checked their database and found the alias was false and that an international arrest warrant had been issued by magistrates in London on May 25, last year.

Stanley was caught by Customs officers in November 2002 when they intercepted a timber consignment at Goole, Humberside. The load consisted of 700 hollowed out pine logs, filled with cigarettes.

At his hearing on Friday, he told the court he feared for his safety if he was sent to prison.

Kush Verma, in mitigation, said: "He is apologetic."