Vape shop with 'mattress on floor in back' shut down

The first vape shop in a town has been closed down within months of opening.

Wirral Council took action against The West Kirby Vape Shop on Banks Road over concerns about "criminality and antisocial behaviour".

The council said enforcement officers found a mattress on the floor in a back room, illegal cigarettes and illegal vapes.

Magistrates issued a closure order on the shop, which only opened in October last year.

The council said it began receiving complaints soon after the shop opened.

Andrea Fitzgerald, prosecuting for Wirral Council at Wirral Magistrates' Court, said someone was found to be working there illegally.

She told the court nine packets of counterfeit cigarettes were also found.

Kevin Burn, tobacco compliance officer at the council, said: "We seized a number of vapes - 57 vapes that were non-compliant.

"We also saw bottles of Coca-Cola which didn't have the proper labels."

The court heard the shop was linked, through its director Khalid Qader, to another shop in Oswestry in Shropshire, where 5,000 illegal cigarettes were found when a member of staff tried to flee the premises carrying a suitcase and a shopping bag.

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