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Eight gold bars which were seized after a passenger travelling to Dubai tried to smuggle them through airport customs in a lunchbox are to be auctioned.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) officers found the ingots, estimated to be worth £750,000, while searching luggage at Manchester Airport in November 2018.

A spokesman said the bars, which will be sold on Thursday, weighed as much as "an adult Staffordshire bull terrier".

The sale follows HMRC's first use of new civil proceeds of crime powers.

The HMRC spokesman said the passenger carrying the bars, who was from the Manchester area, had not faced a criminal prosecution.

He said investigators had used "new civil proceeds of crime powers for the first time to apply for forfeiture of the bars", which weighed about 35lbs (16kg).

The 2017 Criminal Finance Act enables listed assets, including precious metals, seized using the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to be subjected to forfeiture in the same way as cash deemed to be from the proceeds of crime.

HMRC Fraud Investigation Service assistant director Gill Hilton said the case "should act as a deterrent to criminals looking to trade assets such as precious metals".

"If they are the proceeds of crime or intended for unlawful conduct, we now have the powers to take them from criminals."

She added that money raised from the auction "will go straight back into the public purse to be spent on vital services such as hospitals and schools".

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