Council smokes out illicit tobacco traders

TOWER HAMLETS’ Trading Standards Officers’ faces lit up as they surveyed their latest haul of illicit tobacco – seized from retailers across the borough after a six week long crackdown.

Officers went around the borough and made test purchases from various shops – gathering evidence to use in prosecutions of any retailers not conforming to the law. Over half the outlets they visited were breaking the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 in one way or another.

Some retailers were selling goods which, officers suspect, were smuggled into the UK. These products were being sold at around two thirds of the cost of legitimate items – which means that the retailer is not collecting tax for the Government.

Council staff bag up the evidence.

Smuggled products also don’t have health warnings which conform to UK legal requirements. This is seen to undermine the efforts made by the authorities to put across a public health message about how dangerous smoking is – to those who do it and to the people around them.

Their recent success is spurring the Council on to do more. They are now involving sniffer dogs in some of their inspections and they expect prosecutions to result from this work.

Executive Mayor of Tower Hamlets, John Biggs, issued a strong and robust statement: “Dodgy cigarettes smuggled into the country illegally put legitimate hard working businesses at a disadvantage, take money out of the local economy and can pose a health risk. The 60 per cent success rate of the recent operation shows that the intelligence-led approach being taken by the council’s enforcement teams is working well and delivering results. I hope these efforts send a clear message that retailers who ignore the law will be identified and held to account.”

Cllr Asma Begum, Cabinet Member for Community Safety, echoed John Biggs’s words, saying, “Rules on the safe sale of tobacco are in place for good reason and the majority of our hard working local businesses respect that. Where our enforcement teams find evidence that there are traders violating the law it is vital that they take all necessary action against them.”

The mayor, John Biggs, is following on from his predecessor Lutfur Rahman – whose Administration also prioritised the search for illicit tobacco and prosecuted traders such as Mohammed Razual Karim.

•The Council encourages residents to report the sale of counterfeit or unsafe goods to the Trading Standards Team on 020-7364 5008.

•As well as cracking down on sales of illicit tobacco, the Council is making a special effort to help residents stop smoking this month:
Tower Hamlets to tackle record tobacco use

•Read more about it:
Mohammed Razual Karim prosecuted by Lutfur Rahman’s Administration
Lutfur Rahman’s Administration clocks up successful “Operation Henry”

[Adverts]