From: CoventryTelegraph.net
A SHOPKEEPER has been fined after more than 14,000 counterfeit cigarettes were seized in a flat above a Coventry store.
Mustafa Abdulla, of CP Supermarket, in Humber Avenue, Stoke, was fined almost £4,000 at Coventry Magistrates Court.
Abdulla, who pleaded guilty, was first challenged by trading standards officers during a routine visit to the store where they found five packets of illegal cigarettes were found behind the shop counter.
Another 25 packets of illegal fruit-flavoured tobacco were seized from the store room at the back of the premises.
The following day, customs officers, police and a sniffer dog, searched Abdulla’s flat above the shop and seized 14,500 illegal cigarettes.
Hamish Simmonds, the council’s trading standards manager, said: “There is a commonly held view that dealing in imported cigarettes is a victimless crime which doesn’t do any harm.
“The perception of a ‘Robin Hood’ type figure, not paying tax to the government so they can sell them cheaply to the poor is totally false as it affects the livelihood of other local shops who sell cigarettes.”
To report the sale of counterfeit cigarettes call Consumer Direct on 08454 040506.
