A lorry driver who was caught smuggling nearly two million cigarettes into Kent - then went on the run for nine years - has been jailed.

Emil Boguslaw Dworak, 45, was caught with 1.9 million cigarettes when leaving France but then fled to his native Poland to avoid justice in the UK.

He failed to turn up to his trial and was sentenced in his absence in 2009 to 18 months in jail for smuggling cigarettes into the UK after an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs.

He finally appeared at Maidstone Crown Court on Wednesday where he was ordered to begin the 18-month jail sentence.

Dworak had originally been stopped on January 26 in 2007 at UK border control as he tried to board a Eurotunnel train at Coquelles, Calais, bound for Folkestone.

He was arrested after officers searched his lorry and found the illegal cigarettes worth £312,000 in unpaid duty hidden among pallets of cosmetics.

He absconded prior to a trial at Maidstone Crown Court on September 7 2009.

A European Arrest Warrant was issued and in August this year, Dworak – using the surname Marciniak – was caught crossing the border into Hungary following a holiday in Croatia and was extradited to the UK.

Tom Hunnisett, assistant director of the Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC, said: "Dworak didn’t think that, after nine years, we were still on his tail and we would bring him back to the UK to face justice.

"He was aiming to undercut legitimate retailers with this large quantity of smuggled cigarettes by evading £312,000 in duty, equivalent to the starting annual salary of 13 nurses.

"HMRC continues to target the supply of illicit tobacco, which costs the UK around £2.5 billion a year, money that could be used to fund vital public services.

"We encourage anyone with information regarding the smuggling, storage or sale of illegal tobacco to report it to HMRC online, or call our Fraud Hotline on 0800 788 887."