Two lorry drivers have been jailed for their part in a £500,000 booze smuggling ring after trips to warehouses in France.

Darren Brooker, 46, from Ashford, and Mervyn Osgood, 61, from Maidstone, were importing the alcohol across the channel between October 2012 and June 2013.

The duo delivered booze to locations across the UK, which would then be sold on to consumers at a duty free price.

But they were rumbled by HM Revenue and Customs after a lorry driver was stopped at Dover docks in October 2012.

Officers found the lorry was laden with beer, but when they inspected the paperwork they realised Osgood had used it the day before for an identical load.

HMRC officers arrested and questioned the lorry driver about the faulty paperwork, and this led to the arrest of Osgood in February 2013.

They probed his telephone records and discovered Brooker was also in on the plot, so he was arrested in July 2013. Officers estimated the pair had evaded as much as £500,000 in tax duties.

Normally tax duty for alcohol can be suspended while it is moved and stored between bonded warehouses in the European Union.

But when a business releases the alcohol for the retail market the tax duty of the host country then becomes payable.

This week the smugglers appeared at Maidstone Magistrates Court where they were found guilty of importing non-duty paid alcohol into the UK from a bonded warehouse in France.

Osgood has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison, while Brooker will face two and a half years behind bars.

HMRC’s assistant director from the Fraud Investigation Service Alan Tully said: “Osgood and Brooker evaded up to half a million pounds in duty by smuggling alcohol into the country at the expense of legitimate traders and taxpayers.

“We urge anyone with information about the sale, storage or transport of illicit alcohol to contact the customs hotline on 0800 59 5000.”