So Many Raids
Shopkeepers were warned, the government announced a crackdown, but store after store has been found to be selling illicit black-market products
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by Dave Cross
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Shopkeepers were warned, the government announced a crackdown, but store after store has been found to be selling illicit black-market products. Maybe the store owners felt that Trading Standards wouldn’t act because of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill failing to become legislation before the election – they were wrong.
“To crack down on underage sales, the government will also bring in new fines for shops in England and Wales which sell vapes illegally to children. Trading Standards officers will be empowered to act ‘on the spot’ to tackle underage tobacco and vape sales. This builds on a maximum £2,500 fine that local authorities can already impose,” the government announced in January.
It added: “To help ensure the success of the smokefree generation plan, £30 million new funding a year will be provided to bolster enforcement agencies - including Border Force, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and Trading Standards - to implement these measures and stamp out opportunities for criminals.”
Stores across Wolverhampton are the latest to be hit, according to the City of Wolverhampton Council. The Council said they uncovered:
- 2,280 illicit cigarettes
- 8.1kg of banned oral tobacco and snus
- 550 illicit vapes
The action follows Jawad Qazikhani, owner of Anis Trading Limited, operating as The Orange Shop in Ipswich, receiving a £6,000 fine for being caught selling to underage purchasers twice.
In April, Easi-Vape in Bishop Auckland was ordered to close for two months by Newton Aycliffe magistrates. A raid revealed 1,500 illegal vapes (valued at over £16,000) in the store despite the fact that a previous raid had discovered almost £9,000’s worth of illicit stock.
A similar tale has occurred in Lincolnshire, where the Grab and Go in March, and Europe Foods and Biedronka in Grantham were closed down for three months following Trading Standards swoops.
Sergeant Lee Mayfield said: "We had intelligence that these stores were not operating in the scope of the law, and when we carried out enforcement in March we found illegal vapes at Biedronka and Europe Foods which were hidden in the storage room behind false panels constructed into the shelving units.
"Some of these were sophisticated and used magnetic mechanical components. We had also found a large quantity of illegal vapes and cigarettes at Jaz Mini Market, which also had hiding places for the goods. At Local Stores, we found counterfeit cigarettes. Some of the disposable vapes seized were offering 9,000 to 15,000 puffs per vape. As a rule, disposable vapes should have around 600 puffs in them, so they comply with the legal limits on size. We knew we needed to tackle this for our community, because we know that there can be associated crime and community impact.
"Each case is different, but the concerns we have are around human trafficking, where the people working in those shops have been trafficked and dragged into criminality by those focused on profit making; money laundering and tax offenses; hindering prosperity of legitimate local business; and the significant health and safety implications linked to these illegal tobacco and vape products. These closure orders remove their operating base, and if we find offending continues, they can be extended by a further three months.
"These extensions give us time to work on problem solving approaches with our partners internally and externally, i.e., Trading Standards, Immigration, the Local Authority, Police Licencing Teams as well as Local Policing Teams to reduce this antisocial behaviour and associated crime. This is a larger, more complex criminal issue that we are tackling head on.”
The raids, fines and store closures do not appear to be posing the desired deterrent, the government needs to think carefully about vape legislation given the large sums to be earned from black-market sales.
Photo Credit:
Photo by Kyle Bushnell on Unsplash
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
