Shop director fined £1,000 over illegal tobacco trade

A company director from Rotherham has been ordered to pay a £1,000 fine after his shop possessed and sold illegal cigarettes.

According to local reports, Parwaiz Noori of Albert Street in Maltby in South Yorkshire appeared at Barnsley Magistrates’ Court on Friday (21) and pleaded guilty to charges relating to sales from Best One (Barnsley) Ltd Lundwood.

Barnsley Council said 720 illicit cigarettes and two pouches of hand-rolling tobacco had been found at the business on Pontefract Road in March 2022. The shop also failed two test purchases by Barnsley Council officers in May and July 2022.

Noori was also ordered to pay a £100 victim surcharge and £3,213.57 costs, reports stated.

“All tobacco causes significant harm to people’s health, and we will do everything we can to prevent the sale of illegal tobacco,” reports quoted Julia Burrows, Barnsley Council’s executive director of public health and communities, as saying.

“The illegal tobacco trade has strong links with organised crime and criminal gangs, so many of the people smuggling, distributing and selling it are involved in drug dealing, money laundering, people trafficking and even terrorism. Even small-time local sellers are at the end of a long criminal chain — selling illegal tobacco is a crime.”