Border officers helped shed light on 2.5 million of smuggled cigarettes... hidden in a load of solar panels.

Border Force staff seized the booty after stopping a Polish-registered lorry at Dover's Eastern Docks after it arrived on a ferry from Dunkirk on March 21.

Then, days later, staff at the freight controls at the entrance to the Channel Tunnel in Coquelles, France made a second seizure.

They found 600,000 cigarettes concealed inside rolls of insulation material inside on Tuesday.

Paul Morgan, director of Border Force South East & Europe, said: “These detections show that our Border Force officers are on constant alert, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to keep illegal goods out of the UK.

“Anyone who smuggles tobacco for commercial gain is effectively stealing from the public purse and from law-abiding taxpayers.

If the haul had not been intercepted it would have cost the Treasury about £800,000 in unpaid excise duty.

Both cases were passed to HM Revenue & Customs for further investigation.