Store owner jailed following illegal tobacco haul during suspended sentence

The owner of newsagents on Manchester’s Curry Mile has been jailed after hundreds of counterfeit cigarettes and a stash of illegal tobacco were found inside the shop.

Mumtaz Jilani, 52, had been serving a suspended sentence for selling an even larger haul of illicit tobacco from Jilani’s Newsagents when he was caught again.

Trading standards officers from Manchester council visited the premises on Wilmslow Road in Rusholme on September 17, 2019 after receiving a complaint from a member of the public.

With the help of a sniffer dog, the team found 496 cigarettes and 168g of rolling and chewing tobacco without the required labelling and health warnings underneath the counter.

The tobacco was seized by officers.

Jilani, of Blenheim Road, Cheadle Hulme, failed to attend a formal interview after being asked to do so on multiple occasions.

Jilani was sentenced to 18-weeks in prison at Manchester Crown Court on 11 August and was also ordered to pay a cost of £1,120 along with a victim surcharge of £128.

The offences were committed while Jilani was serving a 24-week jail sentence, suspended for two years, for selling illegal tobacco from the same shop.

Investigators from HM Revenue and Customers visited Jilani’s Newsagents on June 29, 2017 as part of a wider operation to crack down on tobacco duty evasion.

Jilani admitted to selling the illegal cigarettes from under his shop counter and showed officers to a storage area at the back of the shop where more illicit products were found.

In total HMRC seized 9,640 cigarettes, 400g of hand rolling tobacco and just under 25kg of chewing tobacco.

Jilani, who has previous convictions for making false VAT returns, also admitted to further sales which added up to almost £20,000 in tobacco duty stolen from the public purse.

Jilani’s Newsagents declined to comment when asked to respond to Jilani’s sentencing.