Town shop closed for selling illegal cigarettes

A shop which sold illegal cigarettes to undercover officers eight times and had more than 1,800 packets of illegal tobacco seized has been closed for three months.

Easy Shop, based in Hinckley, Leicestershire, is the subject of an enforced closure until 15 April after an order was granted at Leicester Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

This came after a joint operation by Trading Standards and the police, which saw 1,860 packets of tobacco confiscated across four enforcement visits between June 2022 and October 2024.

The order prevents anyone from entering the shop, which is in Regent Street, and any person who breaches it is liable to be prosecuted, Leicestershire County Council said.

The local authority said its Trading Standards officers conducted a test purchase at the shop in June 2022 after reports of illegal tobacco being sold there.

On that occasion, the officer was sold a packet of counterfeit Richmond cigarettes, with another test purchase in the following month leading to another illegal sale.

An enforcement visit in July 2022 found four packets of tobacco hidden in the shop, the county council added.

A further visit from officers and a tobacco detection dog yielded saw them seize of more than 1,800 tobacco products, with some hidden in the roof space of a stock room and a car belonging to an employee.

The county council said illegal sales continued, despite a change in ownership and several notices from Trading Standards.

The final test purchase was carried out on 8 January, when two packets of illegal tobacco were sold.

Gary Connors, head of Leicestershire Trading Standards, said: "Selling cheap or illicit cigarettes steals trade from our legitimate retailers who lose trade to rogue shopkeepers.

"All smoking is dangerous, but smoking illegal tobacco could potentially be even more harmful to health because the trade in counterfeit and illicit tobacco is unregulated, so there is no control over what is mixed with the tobacco.

"We will continue to clamp down on the sale of illicit cigarettes and vapes, as well as underage sales, to protect Leicestershire residents from traders who break the law."

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