A Loughborough convenience store manager has been jailed for eight months for possessing and selling illicit and counterfeit tobacco.
Baram Tofiq pleaded guilty to 18 offences related to sales from his shop, Booze Zone, after being caught by Leicestershire County Council’s Trading Standards service on three separate occasions.
Test purchases were carried out by Trading Standards officers at the shop on Meadow Lane in October 2021 and December 2022, during which they were sold illegal tobacco products.
Tofiq, 41, of Greenbank Road, Leicester, was prosecuted by Trading Standards and appeared at Leicester Magistrates Court on 9 October 2024 when he entered guilty pleas on behalf of the company Booze Zone Ltd, and in his personal capacity as manager of the company in respect to nine offences in October 2021 relating to the possession and sale of counterfeit tobacco and trademark offences.
For the nine offences in December 2022, Tofiq pleaded not guilty and maintained this plea throughout, claiming that he had sold the shop in June 2022. However, in May this year, on the morning of what should have been his trial, Tofiq pleaded guilty to these offences.
On Tuesday 8 July, he was sentenced at Leicester Crown Court by Judge Timothy Spencer KC to eight months in prison, and the company was also ordered to pay a fine of £20,000 within three months.
The court heard that between February and May 2021, Trading Standards received information that illegal tobacco products were being sold from the shop and sent Tofiq a letter warning that he would be committing criminal offences if he sold non-compliant or counterfeit tobacco.
On 28 October 2021, Trading Standards officers carried out a test purchase at the shop, during which they were sold counterfeit Richmond cigarettes for £5 a packet - less than a third of the price of a genuine pack.
Trading Standards – along with police and a tobacco detection dog - carried out a search of the shop on the same day, where they discovered a suitcase and a bag filled with illegal tobacco products. On that occasion, Tofiq came into the shop and attempted to dispose of the evidence by throwing the illegal tobacco seizure over the fence into the garden of a neighbouring property.
Further test purchases were made on 6 and 13 December 2022, with illicit tobacco being sold on both occasions.
Another search was made on 13 December 2022, during which a number of illegal vapes and tobacco were found in a Toyota car parked outside the shop.
There were two forms of illegal cigarettes sold at Booze Zone – genuine cigarettes which were not intended for sale in the UK as they did not comply with UK labelling legislation, and fake copies of legitimate brands such as Richmond and Lambert & Butler.
"Trade in illicit tobacco costs the country more than £2 billion in lost tax revenue each year. It funds other criminality, undermines public health and often provides a cheap source of tobacco for young people.
"This sentence sends out the clear message that persistent offending of this nature will be met with robust Trading Standards enforcement response, and those who engage in fraudulent activity could face prison.
"Leicestershire County Council Trading Standards will not hesitate to investigate and take action against this sort of unscrupulous activity," Gary Connors, head of Leicestershire Trading Standards, said.