Shop and trader fined for selling illegal vapes

A Wolverhampton shop and its director have been ordered to pay more than £50,000 for selling illicit vapes and cigarettes.

One Stop Wolverhampton Ltd, in Stafford Street, sold an illicit vape to an underage test purchaser and a pack of illicit cigarettes to an undercover council officer in August last year.

Further illegal cigarettes and vapes were found in the store when Trading Standards officers visited with a detection dog two days later.

The shop and director Rashid Hussain were convicted of 19 charges at Dudley Magistrates Court and fined £20,000 each and ordered to pay costs of £4,000 each and victim surcharge of £2,000 each.

The cigarettes and vapes were found in the counter area of the shop and others were found under a bed in the basement, the City of Wolverhampton Council said.

In total, 228 illicit vapes and 3,089 illicit cigarettes were seized.

The test purchases and subsequent raid were carried out as part of Operation CeCe and Operation Joseph, which are national initiatives to tackle the sale of illicit tobacco and illegal vapes, the authority added.

Councillor Bhupinder Gakhal, City of Wolverhampton Council's cabinet member for resident services, said it was a "great result for our Trading Standards team who work extremely hard to crack down on any business selling and supplying illicit and dangerous products."

Lord Michael Bichard, Chair, National Trading Standards, said the illicit tobacco trade was driven by organised criminal gangs and the national operation had seen 69 million illegal cigarettes, 19,750kg of hand-rolling tobacco and almost 175kg of shisha products from sale.

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