Lincolnshire Trading Standards looking to force Spalding shops to shut if they sell illegal cigarettes
Shops in Spalding selling illegal cigarettes could be forced to shut through court orders - as the crackdown against organised crime gangs operating here steps up.
In the last couple of years there have been a number of high profile raids on stores in Spalding - including recent action against the owner of Euro Express in Commercial Road which saw him jailed for 16 months.
Shops such as this have been revealed as a front for an illegal cigarette operation that merely masquerade as a proper shop - and about half a dozen have been exposed in the last couple of years.
The items they sell are a hazard and can lead to devastation such as that in the house fire pictured, in Wyberton, in which the owner miraculously escaped but the property was ravaged.
While owners such as Haiman Fatah Mohamad - the man behind Euro Express - have been taken to court, Lincolnshire Trading Standards is promising to bring new powers to the town to further hit such operations.
Trading Standards has already secured 14 closure orders through the courts in Boston and Lincoln, and has vowed to bring them to Spalding next.
Principal Trading Standards Officer Andy Wright said: “That is something we are now exploring with the police in Spalding who appear enthusiastic to the idea. Trading Standards will always investigate the criminal offences committed by the business owner - now we are also looking, in appropriate cases, to propose the closure of premises.”
He added: “Over the next 12 months we will be doing as much as we possibly can in Spalding and the surrounding area. We do appreciate it is a problem that concerns residents.It’s a case of ‘watch this space’. We will certainly be doing more enforcement around Spalding.”
The closure orders are for a maximum of three months - but the authorities can get repeated orders for shops that do not clean up their act.
Court closure orders are part of a three-pronged strategy to tackle illegal cigarettes - alongside prosecution and writing to the landlords who own the shops to let them know what is going on in their buildings.
Mr Wright said: “By and large, these shops are rented and it is the tenant conducting the business. In a lot of cases the landlords are completely oblivious to what’s going on in their shops.
“We communicate what we are finding in the shops to the premises landlord. The most diligent of landlords are taking action to evict problem tenants.”
The three powers combined have delivered results, according to Mr Wright.
In one street in Lincoln, officers targeted a series of stores selling illegal cigarettes and most have now been closed. As a knock-on effect, police say crime in and around that area has fallen 15%.
Mr Wright insists that the problem in Spalding is not unusual. Similar issues are found right across the county and country - with an estimated 50-plus shops in Lincolnshire alone who rely on the sale of illegal cigarettes.
These are shops that are run by organised crime gangs, with one Spalding shop tenant even living as far away as Glasgow.
The people in the shop are - according to Mr Wright - often being exploited themselves, acting as the ‘fall guy’ on the ground for the gang, with workers used who are also often here illegally and paid little or nothing.
He said: “These are organised crime groups. It’s not one guy who decides to open up shop who thinks about cigarettes on the side. These are groups who have a large number of people involved in the supply of cigarettes across the country and do it for a living.”
He added: “There’s a lot of money to be made through it and all of that money flows into other types of criminality once it’s into that sphere.
“With the assistance of the police it’s a problem we are hopefully going to get to grips with.
“It’s encouraging that we are getting very worthwhile results when we prosecute the primary offenders through the court.”
Why is there such a focus on this? For Mr Wright it boils down to two key things - fairness and safety.
He explained that many small businesses rely on the sale of things such as cigarettes and the additional sales they generate through bringing people into their shops - but that there’s ‘unfair competition’ when counterfeit and illegal products undercut them.
The illegal cigarettes are very cheap when compared with the equivalent pack costing about £11 in a supermarket.
Mr Wright said: “We have had cases where people are put out of business. We want a level playing field for legitimate businesses to compete in Lincolnshire. That being said, we want to reduce the consumption of cigarettes as much as possible. I don’t think it would come as a surprise to anyone that even legal cigarettes kill people, it’s even written on the packet. Illegal, cheaper cigarettes can only increase consumption.”
The other element is safety. Illegal cigarettes don’t pass the ignition propensity test - meaning they continue to burn all the way down to the filter. Cigarettes that are legal in the UK have to pass this test meaning that they self-extinguish if left unattended.
Without this they are a fire risk - and have been linked to devastating house blazes in our area, even resulting in the loss of life.
There are fears that the cost of living crisis might exacerbate the problem - increasing the allure of cheaper-but-less-safe goods.
Mr Wright is not sure how much this is a factor, but said: “It can’t help. Obviously money is in short supply so perhaps a cheap packet of cigarettes looks more appealing than it did a couple of years ago. But this has been building for some years. It’s not something that has just come about in these last couple of years with the cost of living crisis.
“We have had shops 10 years ago selling illegal cigarettes. It’s not something new but it is something that is perhaps growing.”
The current three-pronged attack might not be the end of the extent of the powers too.
New legislation later this year might also allow the taxman to issue separate fixed penalty notices.
Fines from HMRC against retailers selling illegal cigarettes could be up to a maximum of £10,000.
However, it remains to be seen how this would work as the legwork would be done by Trading Standards without necessarily receiving any extra resource.
If Trading Standards were able to use the proceeds of the penalties, these could used to step up the enforcement further still and focus on tackling the problems locally.
Mr Wright said: “It’s early days yet and we have to see how it is going to work.”
He added: “It could be a missed opportunity. We could have provided dedicated officers financed by the criminals themselves if it were funded in that way but the government have decided that’s not what they want to happen and currently the plan is that money from fixed penalties will go directly into central funds rather than distributed directly to the regions affected.”
While the problem persists - Mr Wright stressed that it’s important not to stereotype about the outlets responsible or that Eastern European shops should not be tarred with this brush.
While many of the businesses pretend to be such shops, this is completely a front - with the people responsible often not Eastern European themselves.
Mr Wright added: “I am able to spot which ones are selling illegal cigarettes just by walking through the door, there are tell-tale signs that are common to most. There are many legitimate Eastern European shops which trade within the law. We are happy with them.”
