The former boss of a football club who took part in one of the country’s biggest cigarette smuggling crimes was jailed for five and half years today. Guy Simpson, who used to be chief executive of Southern League Premier Division side Halesowen Town, helped organise the shipment from China loaded in two 40ft (12m) containers which held more than 21 million counterfeit cigarettes. He admitted at an earlier hearing to fraudulently avoiding d ... Jump to full article >>

Coronation Street’s head honcho has defended the soap for having characters who smoke. Executive producer Kieran Roberts told Radio Times: “While we have a duty not to glamorise the habit, it would be realistic to see nobody smoking – but only a few regulars do.” He added that the smoking ban in 2007 means characters such as Deidre Barlow (Anne Kirkbride) tend to smoke outdoors now, for example in the back yard of the Ro ... Jump to full article >>