On the 16 December 2022, Mr Kamran Khan from Bradford appeared at Bradford Crown Court for selling illicit cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco from his business, Kamran Food Store, 252 St Stephens Road, Bradford, BD5 7HJ.
Mr Khan was sentenced to a four month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months and also required to do 180 hours of unpaid work.
The premises was well known to West Yorkshire Trading Standards Service (WYTSS) with the Service having received complaints about the premises supplying illicit and duty free tobacco.
On 9th August 2017 a counterfeit packet of Amber Leaf hand rolling tobacco was purchased for £3.50. The normal price for this item at that time was around £25.00, over £11.00 of which being excise duty that had clearly not been paid.
On 10 August 2017, an inspection visit was conducted by trading standards officers at Kamran Food Store. Mr Khan was working at the store and confirmed it was his business.
A search of the store was conducted and illegal tobacco was recovered from behind the counter and from a store room. Almost 5,000 cigarettes and over 1kg of hand rolling tobacco was seized.
On 26 November 2021, as a result of further information received about the continued sale of illegal tobacco, an inspection visit was conducted by trading standards officers at Kamran Food Store.
The defendant Mr Khan was working at the store and confirmed he still owned the business. A search of the store was conducted and illegal tobacco was recovered from behind the counter, from a filing cabinet in the first floor office and a first floor store room. The total amount seized was 76,000 cigarettes and almost 1kg of hand rolling tobacco.
The total street value of the seizures is around £20,000, resulting in a loss of duty of around £25,000. The seized illicit tobacco products were a mix of counterfeit, did not bear the statutory health warnings, were not in the standardised packaging and were non duty paid.
The Tackling Illicit Tobacco for Better Health Programme, funded by the five Public Health departments, is helping people to stop tobacco use for good by educating the public and by investigating traders who supply cheap and illicit tobacco.
The initiative uses multi-agency enforcement and community marketing campaigns to tackle the problems of the illicit trade.
To date the programme has taken more than 9 million illicit cigarettes and 3 tonnes of illicit hand rolling tobacco off the streets of West Yorkshire. With more inspections planned in the coming weeks, these figures are set to increase.
Training sessions with thousands of members of the public and hundreds of front line professionals have been delivered to raise awareness about the dangers and wider criminality associated with the supply of illicit tobacco.
Linda Davis, West Yorkshire Trading Standards Manager said, “Far from being a victimless crime, the illegal trade in tobacco costs government millions each year in lost revenue, makes it easier for children to start smoking, takes advantage of cash-strapped families, and helps fund organised crime including human trafficking.
This sentence should be a warning to others who supply illegal tobacco. I would like to thank all the partners and members of the public for reporting illegal sales and encourage everyone to continue doing so to reduce the harm caused by tobacco in our communities.”
Image: Bradford Council
Councillor Sue Duffy, Deputy Chair of the West Yorkshire Joint Services Committee which oversees the work of Trading Standards said, “All tobacco is harmful, but the supply of illegal tobacco seriously undermines the drive to reduce smoking, fuels organised criminality and is often a gateway for young people to becoming addicted to a habit which prematurely kills over half its users.”
If you need to report a trader selling cheap and illicit tobacco please contact the Citizens Advice consumer helpline: 0808 223 1133 anonymously.
Anyone wanting help to quit can find their local Stop Smoking Service at
www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/
