Illegal cigarettes hidden in shop compartments

The Tuesday morning stings involved police, trading standards and immigration officers, working with a private sniffer dog firm.

Joint teams visited four locations, checking for illegal products and undocumented workers.

They were acting on intelligence from private investigators, who managed to buy illicit tobacco from each store back in March.

The illegal smoking materials included genuine tobacco smuggled into the UK, branded fakes and “cheap whites" - cigarettes like Jin Lings, Richmans or Raquels, which are not regulated and only sold illegally.

Three of these shops - located in the town centre, Bradgate and Eastwood - contained illicit tobacco when raided on Tuesday.

Much of this was hidden in compartments under shop counters and in false walls.

Normally sold at about half the price of taxed cigarettes, the £2,000 haul represents £4,000 in legal sales.

Rotherham Trading Standards manager Ivan Thompson, said: “We have executed four warrants today and found about 3,000 illicit cigarettes plus illicit rolling tobacco.

“Most of this was concealed in secret compartments, which is not unusual.

“These products are especially unsafe because they don’t comply with European safety standards.

“As such, they won’t burn themselves out like normal cigarettes and could cause fires.”

Rotherham Borough Council will now seek to prosecute shop owners caught with the illicit products.

“It is a criminal offence to supply these products,” said Mr Thompson.

“They are sold at around £3 a pack, which undermines a lot of the smoking cessation work being done.

“Cigarettes are taxed to discourage smoking and the price is a significant factor in smoking.

“This is undermined when you can get illicit tobacco for a fraction of the cost.”

He added: “The police have assisted us today by extending some of our powers.

“And without the sniffer dogs we might not have found this tobacco, so those have been very important too.

“This is ongoing work in the borough, so there will be more of these sorts of visits.”

The Advertiser joined WOR Consultancy on undercover tobacco busts in March.

The private eyes mapped Rotherham shops selling illegal tobacco, handing the information to cigarette-makers and Rotherham Borough Council.

Mr Thompson added: “We have had to go to court and get warrants and we have used information from the industry to do that.

“Generally, it is the owner who is committing an offence by selling these illicit products, whether knowingly or not.

“Now it is a case of bringing them in, looking at all of the evidence and then taking them to court.

“We have also taken CCTV evidence, so we will be analysing that as well - we will look at evidence on anyone working in that premises.

“People could well be prosecuted for aiding and abetting the owner in this.”