Illegal tobacco sales land shopkeeper in court

Officers found counterfeit cigarettes and empty cartons at the Little Hulton shop on the day officers went to caution him for the two previous offences.

Shujat Ali, owner of Super Discount Store, Hulton District Centre, pleaded guilty to two offences under the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 and the Trade Marks Act 1994 for possession of counterfeit cigarettes when he appeared at Salford and Manchester Magistrates Court.

The court heard that trading standards officers and a specialist dog handler visited the business on 29 May 2019 and seized illicit tobacco worth £7,000. They recovered 11,000 cigarettes, 7,780 of which were counterfeit and 107 pouches of hand-rolling tobacco, six of which were counterfeit.

Two weeks later, on 11 June, officers carried out a follow up visit and seized 720 cigarettes, of which 520 were counterfeit, worth £882. All the products were seized and Ali accepted a caution for the offences.

On 28 November 2019, following more public complaints about the shop, trading standards officers and a specialist dog handler visited the premises. They found a sleeve of Richmond King Size branded cigarettes, containing 200 cigarettes, in a box of umbrellas in the back storeroom. Ali was asked to explain them and suggested they were leftover from the previous seizure of illicit cigarettes and that he had stopped selling them since then. However, a further 17 outer cartons from illicit cigarettes were also found in the storeroom. The products were later confirmed as counterfeit.

Ali admitted he had been selling illicit cigarettes daily and had continued to do so since trading standards last raided his shop in June 2019.

Officers identified £1,694.22 of cash on the premises and this was seized by trading standards as proceeds of crime and has since been forfeited.

Ali failed to attend two interviews to explain his actions and made no contact with trading standards.

Ali was fined £780, ordered to pay £740 costs and a £30 victim surcharge. The cigarettes were ordered to be destroyed.

Speaking after the case, councillor David Lancaster, lead member for environment and community safety, said: “In 2020-2021 Salford City Councils trading standards team seized 110,0990 cigarettes and 875 pouches of illegal and counterfeit tobacco. We will not hesitate to take action against anyone who thinks they can flout the law in this way.”

Andrea Crossfield, of the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, added: “Illegal tobacco might seem like a bargain but it comes at a high price to our kids and our communities.”

Salford City Council supports The Keep it Out campaign, which is run by the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, in collaboration with local authority trading standards teams and enforcement partners in the north.