Warning follows crackdown on rogue sellers of illegal tobacco

Over the last year trading standards officers have seized counterfeit products including 148,200 illegal cigarettes, 67.7 kilos of hand-rolling tobacco and 25.5 kilos of shisha tobacco used in hookah pipes.

The authority has also for the first time used its powers to revoke an alcohol and tobacco licence from a shop.

The licence was withdrawn from Osman Ali’s Wisla Mini Market in Beverley Road after he ignored repeated warnings about selling illicit goods. Between October 14, 2010, and February 8 this year, five inspections were made at the premises.

Each time illegal foreign cigarettes were found and seized, including 436 packets of cigarettes labelled “L&M”, “Jin Ling” and Marlborough” which had been hidden around the shop.

Twelve packets of hand-rolling tobacco labelled “Golden Virginia” were also found and were later identified as counterfeit.

Osman had been warned in January but was caught again in February and prosecuted.

He admitted three offences under tobacco products regulations when he appeared at Hull Magistrates’ Court on July 1 and was fined £1,050 and ordered to pay £1,500 costs.

The council is also pursuing a zero tolerance approach towards tobacco sales to children, and earlier this year closed its first “fag house” – which is typically a private home where cheap, usually counterfeit cigarettes are being sold.

This followed a prosecution after a man ignored warnings about selling illegal cigarettes to children.

William Bramham, of River Grove, admitted supplying illegal cigarettes to children, and 3,800 wrongly labelled cigarettes were seized. Bramham was fined £265 and ordered to pay £380 costs.

In another case, Rakhshinda Mufti, a shopkeeper from Albert Avenue, was fined £200 and ordered to pay £250 costs after admitting selling a packet of cigarettes to a 15-year-old child. She had been previously warned about underage sales after a similar offence last year.

Coun John Hewitt, portfolio holder for neighbourhoods and communities, said the council would use all the powers it had to clamp down on the illegal tobacco trade.

He said: “We are committed to working with our partners to make Hull a safer and healthier place to live and work. We will use all the powers at our disposal to deal with those who flout the law, both to protect the public and the majority of businesses that seek to make an honest living.”

A council survey of 30 retailers in March found that two-thirds of them considered illegal tobacco sales to be a problem that was having a noticeable effect on their business.

The trading standards department works closely with other agencies including HM Revenue and Customs and the police.

A specialist tobacco enforcement officer also works as part of the team playing a key role in cracking down on illegal tobacco products and sales to under age smokers.

The council said the campaign “highlighted the impact that illicit cigarette sales has on legitimate businesses and warned young people about the dangers of buying cheap foreign and counterfeit cigarettes”.

Earlier this year a report suggested one out of every four retailers in the East Riding was selling tobacco to children.

Child volunteers who carried out test purchases on behalf of East Riding Council found that 24.4 per cent of premises sold them tobacco – a rise of more than 11 per cent on the previous year, and above the Yorkshire and Humber average of 17.6 per cent.

Nationally, almost twice as many people die each year from tobacco-related diseases than the next six preventable causes of death put together.