Hull’s c-store loses licence over counterfeit cigarettes, super-strength booze

A convenience store on Hull’s Anlaby Road has been stripped of its off-licence for selling smuggled counterfeit cigarettes and super-strength booze. 

The decision to revoke the licence followed a series of visits by police and council trading standards officers who found large quantities of smuggled cigarettes and tobacco stored at the premises at multiple occasions.

According to local reports, in the latest visit that happened last week, officers discovered around 15,000 smuggled illicit cigarettes hidden in bins kept in a yard behind the shop. Another 2,000 were found in a nearby parked car belonging to a man working at the shop.

Councillors heard the shop’s licence holder Peshawar Zada had been detained while trying to leave via a rear exit. When searched, he was also found to be carrying a quantity of illicit cigarettes, reports said.

Additionally, several different varieties of bottled beers with an alcohol content above 6.5 per cent were still found to be on the shelves despite previous warnings.

During an earlier visit in February a specially-trained tobacco dog sniffed out a haul of 1,620 smuggled cigarettes and pouches of hand-rolled tobacco wrapped in a plastic hag hidden in a bin in a store room. Subsequent tests carried out on some of the seized cigarettes confirmed they were counterfeit products.

Evidence submitted by the police said the cigarettes did not comply with general product safety directives which require the tobacco industry to use fire retardant paper in all cigarettes. In addition, the police said such cigarettes often contained even more harmful chemicals than those subject to industry regulations.