Bradford shop owner jailed over illicit tobacco trade

A Bradford shopkeeper who admitted selling illicit cigarettes and tobacco from his store has been jailed for 28 days, stated recent reports.

According to local reports, hundreds of packets were seized from Sunrise Supermarket in Bradford in June last year, which were counterfeit, did not bear the statutory health warnings and were not in the standardised packing.

Owner Mohammad Riaz, 67, was behind the counter when West Yorkshire Trading Standards carried out the raid.

The illicit and duty free tobacco was discovered in a filing cabinet, in boxes stored on the shelves and from within a loft space in the storeroom, reports said.

About 144 20-packs of counterfeit Richmond cigarettes, 116 50g-packets of counterfeit Golden Virginia tobacco, 1,742 tobacco products that did not comply with standardised packing rules and 538 tobacco products without the statutory health warnings were seized. Overall, 32,500 cigarettes in total, with the street value of the seizure around £12,000 were seized.

Riaz, of Haslingden Drive, pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing goods with a false trade mark for sale, supplying a tobacco product in breach of packaging regulations and supplying a tobacco product which does not carry the combined health warning.

Bradford Crown Court heard how Trading Standards and West Yorkshire Police carried out the raid on Sunrise Supermarkets, Westfield Road, off Toller Lane, after a tip off that the store was selling illicit tobacco.

In Riaz’s defence, the court heard that he was deeply ashamed of his actions, and that he had been struggling to deal with the death of his son to a brain tumour.

Judge Andrew Hatton sentenced Riaz to 28 days in prison, adding: “Such offences strike at the very heart of economy at a time when the economy needs to be as strong as it possibly can be.”