A Cardiff shopkeeper landed in court after his hidden store of illegal cigarettes was exposed. Kovan Nasser was hoarding more than 9,000 cigarettes behind cladding at Santos Off Licence in Canton.
The offences were uncovered in May 2021 when HMRC and trading standards officers visited the Cowbridge Road East convenience shop and "identified an area behind cladding in the back room that was secured with an electromagnetic lock", said a spokesperson for the Shared Regulatory Services.
Inside the officers found a store of counterfeit and illegal hand-rolling tobacco and cigarettes. They seized 9,440 cigarettes and 2.05kg of tobacco. Nasser, 40, initially claimed he "knew nothing about it" but in April this year he admitted four trademark offences, one under tobacco regulations, and one under standardised packaging rules. Cardiff Magistrates' Court heard some of the cigarettes had fake Richmond, Amber Leaf and Lambert & Butler branding.
District Judge David Webster said he took into account that the defendant had pleaded guilty, although not on the first occasion. He said these were sophisticated offences as there had been structural adaptations to the premises. The judge ordered Santos Off Licence to pay a fine of £2,500, prosecution costs of £750 and a victim services surcharge of £190. He also sentenced Nasser, of Heol Glan Rheidol in Cardiff Bay, to a £100 fine, costs of £750, a surcharge of £95, and 20 days of rehabilitation.
A BBC investigation found that illegal tobacco can contain eight times as much lead as legal brands and "abnormally high levels of cancer-causing chemicals". In 2021 more than three million illicit cigarettes were confiscated across Wales.
The Welsh Government says there is evidence of the market "feeding" other areas of crime including gangs, drugs, and human trafficking. And a report from HMRC estimates that the trade costs the UK taxpayer more than £2bn in lost revenues each year.
Members of the public can report illegal tobacco here. You can get more of the latest crime stories straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
