More than 37 kilos of illegal tobacco and almost 23,000 non UK duty paid cigarettes have been seized by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in an operation targeting the trade in illegal tobacco across Lancashire and Manchester.
A Macclesfield man, who hijacked the identity of a company in Wales and illegally imported over 18 million cigarettes in containers claiming they were board games was jailed for three years and eight months.
A market trader from Rochdale, who claimed boxes containing 40kilos of smuggled tobacco were packed with flowers, was sentenced to a suspended jail term and community work at Manchester Crown Court today for trading in illicit tobacco. His accomplice from Humberside was sentenced to 19 months jail.
Police officers in Bolton discover packs of illegal cigarettes and contraband loose tobacco after raiding a busy town centre pound shop.
Two men have been fined £1,130 for selling cigarettes to kids as young as 11 from their ice-cream van in Pontypool.
Children as young as eight are being exploited by criminals and criminal gangs running so-called ‘tab houses’, health officials have warned.
Thousands of illegal cigarettes have been taken off the streets following raids on a shop and a house in Huddersfield.
Cumbria Trading Standards has vowed to step up its efforts in stamping out counterfeit tobacco and underage sales following the conviction of an ice-cream seller who sold fake fags to kids.
More than 10,000 cigarettes and 1.5kg of tobacco were seized during a raid on a Birkenhead shop.
More than 1 million cigarettes have been found inside concrete blocks at Immingham docks by our officers. Officers uncovered the haul on Wednesday (27 October) following checks on lorry freight arriving from the continent.
