A prisoner has been ordered to pay back £370,000 he made from smuggling cigarettes.

Mohmed Safi Patel was told yesterday that he has six months to pay the cash or stay in prison for another four years.

Patel, of Roundhill Road, in Leicester, was jailed for six years in 2008 for smuggling 27 million cigarettes and four tons of tobacco.

His co-defendant Anis Vohora, of Diseworth Street, in Highfields, went on the run before the trial and was extradited back from America in June.

He was jailed for four years and three months.

They were arrested by Customs & Excise investigators at the Sangra Building, in Abbey Park Street, in Leicester on August 31, 2006. Some 98,000 illicit cigarettes were seized.

A search of one of the units resulted in a further seizure of nearly 300,000 cigarettes and 16 kilos of hand-rolling tobacco. A search of a Mercedes van resulted in the seizure of another 600,000 cigarettes.

The operation led officers to Patel's house, where they found extensive hand-written ledgers detailing the organisation's purchase and sale of more than 27 million smuggled cigarettes and four tonnes of hand-rolling tobacco between November 2005 and August 2006.

John Kay, assistant chief investigation officer for HM Revenue & Customs, said: "This was a sophisticated, well-planned and large-scale smuggling operation which resulted in substantial prison sentences.

"However, this case also highlights our determination to pursue their crime profits, depriving them of returning to a life of luxury and recouping money for investment in our country's public services."