Chinese man gets life imprisonment for smuggling wine

A Chinese man has been given a life sentence for illegally importing millions of dollars of fine wine into China from France, Britain and Hong Kong. Sun Xitai was convicted of forging invoices and import contracts to evade import duties on 70,000 bottles worth US$7.13m between January 2004 and December 2009, the Beijing Times reported. He changed the name and price of high-end wines claiming they were cheap wines to avoid the tax rate of up to 50% on wine and said the punitive rate left him no choice but to smuggle the goods. The 62 year old has already served a prison sentence for another offence in 2002 and imported other luxury goods such as Nike trainers and Oakley sunglasses.