Almost 2 million illegal cigarettes seized amid trading standards crackdown
Summary
Almost two million illegal cigarettes have been seized in Gloucestershire over the last four years as trading standards crack down on smugglers. Trading standards officers work closely with the police as well as tax and immigration officers. The UK Treasury loses out on around £1.8 billion to £2.2 billion a year in unpaid tax due to the illegal tobacco trade.
Details
And in Gloucestershire, just under 86,000 packs of 20 cigarettes have been seized since 2021/22 – this equates to over 1.7 million cigarettes. A total of 18,523 illegal vapes have also been seized during that time along with 5,120 packs of 50g of hand rolling tobacco as well as 143 shishas. Jason Poole, head of Trading Standards, gave an update on the service at a Gloucestershire County Council meeting on May 22.
“We procecuted a person and we found one million cigarettes,” he said. “He got 28 months immediate custodial sentence. “That was a small shop in Gloucester, a flat, and then we found a lockup in Kidderminster.” He said figures for 2023/24 amounted to more than 57,136, so high in part because most would have been linked to the jailed man being caught.
Mr Poole said the number of illegal cigarettes seized is “staying steady” but said it is an issue. “We do work closely with the police, HMRC and immigration teams when we spot check these shops,” he said. “This is an organised activity of criminality.
Alongside that, our officers have found drugs, money laundering, immigration offences and even sometimes unfortunately exploitation of youngsters for nefarious purposes.” The committee also heard how single use vape regulations have been quite effective in Gloucestershire. “Single use vape seizures have gone down significantly,” he said.