A married couple smuggled nearly 30,000 cigarettes through Bristol International Airport to sell on to family and friends.

John and Linda Weatherall, both 62, hid the cigarettes, and an amount of tobacco, in their luggage when they returned to the UK from a trip to Spain.

After a search of their Cheltenham home, they were found to be in possession of 28,600 cigarettes and nine kilograms of tobacco, which they should have paid £6,374.58 duty on.

Both Weatheralls admitted at Bristol Crown Court concealing goods with intent to defraud and fraudulently evading duty on March 14.

Judge Michael Roach heard John Weatherall had been subject to a four-month jail term, suspended for 18 months, for importing 200,500 cigarettes.

Judge Roach reactivated two months of John Weatherall's sentence and gave him a further six months, making a total of eight months inside.

He said his wife had been involved on a lesser level and handed her a 12-month community order, with six months' supervision and a three-month curfew with electronic tag in which she must stay at home from 7pm to 7am.

Oliver Willmott, prosecuting, said the Weatheralls had been intercepted by Revenue and Customs officers as they left the blue channel at Bristol Airport.

Most of the cigarettes were Lambert & Butler and Superkings.

John Weatherall said the cigarettes would have been sold to family members at cost prices and did not accept he was trying to make a profit.

James Tucker, defending the couple, said Linda Weatherall was of previous good character and had worked hard throughout her life to bring up four children from a previous marriage.

He said: "She has paid taxes in the past and has been an honest, hard-working, reliable member of society."

Mr Tucker said Mr Weatherall had worked for the South West Electricity Board and then steel works before owning a business dealing with the repair of vacuum cleaners.

He said that after returning to the steel industry he became a bookmaker, sold his licence for a significant profit and then became a semi-professional gambler as well as bookmaker again.