County-wide investigations by officers from Gloucestershire County Council’s trading standards team have lead to seizures of £4000 worth of illegal tobacco and cigarettes and one prosecution.
Earlier this month Ibrahim Jaffar Awllah pleaded guilty to four offences of selling illegal tobacco from Polski Sklep, story Barton Street, Gloucester, over a two month period in 2014. He was fined £150 and ordered to pay £100 towards legal costs and a further £20 victim surcharge.
Having failed to attend a court hearing in March, Mr. Awllah was identified during a separate raid in Gloucester. He was arrested and bailed to attend the later hearing and though claiming to not have been working in the shop, did admit to handing over illegal cigarettes and taking payment for them.
Kaiwan Poore, the owner of – Polski Sklep in 2014 will appear at Cheltenham Magistrates Court on August 27th for sentencing in relation to 27 charges of selling illegal tobacco.
On the same day that Mr Awllah appeared in court, trading standards officers were back out with police colleagues on raids in Coleford and Gloucester. They seized 326 pouches of hand rolling tobacco and 18 packs of cigarettes and 53 packs of rolling tobacco and 18 packs of cigarettes respectively.
None of the products had the required health warnings printed on them, making them illegal for sale.
Cllr Will Windsor-Clive, cabinet member for fire, planning and infrastructure, said; “This is an excellent result for our trading standards team. Illegal tobacco does a lot of harm to legitimate businesses and individuals, as well as making it more affordable for children to start smoking.
“We will continue to work hard to stamp out the sale of illegal tobacco in the county.”
If residents have any concerns about tobacco products being sold at shops in the county, they can contact the Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 03454 04 05 06, or use the ‘report a rogue link’ on the consumers page of the trading standards website www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/glos