A 57-year-old Turkish Cypriot was caught with 14,000 duty-free cigarettes in his luggage as he prepared to fly from Larnaca airport to the UK, the customs department said on Thursday.

Customs officers stopped the passenger on Wednesday after acting on information and searched his luggage before his departure.

They found 70 cartons, each containing 200 cigarettes.

The cigarette packets did not carry the required health warnings in Greek and Turkish and also lacked unique traceability codes, indicating that they were duty-free.

The passenger was arrested and his luggage and the cigarettes were seized.

He was later released after customs accepted his request for an out-of-court settlement of the case on payment of €4,200.

The seized cigarettes will be destroyed in accordance with standard procedures.