A number of shops in Liverpool accused of selling vapes to children were caught with illicit cigarette and vaping products.
Inspectors from Liverpool City Council and Merseyside Polic e visited eight shops across north Liverpool on Wednesday after they received reports the stores were selling vapes to underage children.
Out of the eight inspected shops, five of the stores were found to be selling illicit cigarettes and vape products. Three of these were on County Rd, one on Walton Breck Road Rd and another on Robson Street.
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Officers seized 5,000 cigarettes and 170 non compliant e-cigarettes or vapes.
A spokesperson for Liverpool City Council said warnings were issued and the items were taken away.
Liverpool Police branch of Merseyside Police also issued a statement on its Facebook page to say 200g of illicit tobacco and 170 illicit vape pens were also seized.
A spokesperson said: "Team 3 conducted a joint operation today with Liverpool City Council Trading Standards.
"This operation was to target eight shops in the L3, L4 and L5 areas. These particular shops were targeted after intel reports to the Police and LCC that they were selling vapes to underage children and were selling illicit cigarette and vaping products.
"As a result of the operation, 4760 illicit cigarettes, 200g of illicit tobacco and 170 illicit vape pens were seized."
Councillor Abdul Qadir, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, said: “E-cigarettes and vaping products are seen by many people as a way of giving up smoking.
“Our worrying research shows that people are unknowingly exposing themselves to far more nicotine than they would from using cigarettes, meaning they are even worse for their health.
“Our advice to people buying these products is to always check that the packaging has all of the appropriate warnings on it so that they can be confident they are not exposing themselves to far greater levels of toxic substances than is allowed under the law.
“We are also going to be carrying out enforcement operations early in the new year, so it is really important that retailers check they are buying legal stock they will find themselves out of pocket if we have to seize illegal products, and could be liable for prosecution.
“We will also be making sure that they are only selling to people over the age of 18 as we are aware of concern from parents that they are being sold to children.”
How to spot a genuine e-cigarette or vaping device
Each packet and any container pack must state: “This product contains nicotine which is a highly addictive substance”.
The health warning must:
- appear on both the front and back surfaces of the unit packet and any container pack
- cover 30 per cent of the area of each of those surfaces
- be in black Helvetica bold type on a white background
- be in a large font size in the centre of the surface area
In addition:
- e-cigarette tanks should have a capacity of no more than 2ml you’ve spelt millilitres out in full above.
- refills should be limited to 10ml
- e-liquids should have a nicotine strength of no more than 20mg/ml
- packaging and containers should be child-resistant and tamper evident
- colourings, caffeine and taurine are not allowed
- contain details of the UK importer for traceability and the European Community Identification (ECID) number showing authentication by MHRA
