{"id":5104,"date":"2015-11-23T11:41:45","date_gmt":"2015-11-23T11:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2015\/11\/23\/illegal-cigarettes-seized\/"},"modified":"2016-01-07T12:52:08","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T12:52:08","slug":"illegal-cigarettes-seized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2015\/11\/23\/illegal-cigarettes-seized\/","title":{"rendered":"Illegal Cigarettes Seized"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Officers in Birmingham confiscate 12,400 illegal cigarettes in city raids<\/h3>\n

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Illegal cigarettes and alcohol worth nearly \u00a34,500 were seized by trading standards officers in a series of planned raids on seven retail premises across Birmingham yesterday.<\/p>\n


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Teams of officers targeted shops and off licences in east Birmingham using two sniffer dogs, as part of a continued crackdown on the sale of illicit tobacco and alcohol \u2013 products which have either been smuggled\u00a0 in, illegally produced or for which no duty has been paid.<\/p>\n


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Birmingham City Council\u2019s trading standards officers, working with local police teams, made seizures at six premises, where they confiscated 622 packs of cigarettes, 100 pouches (50g) of tobacco, and 6kg of chewing tobacco.<\/p>\n


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Cigarettes were concealed in cupboards, hidden compartments and bags in an attempt to avoid detection. All products will be destroyed in due course.<\/p>\n


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Officers also seized 400 cans of beer and 40 bottles of spirits, which were found at unlicensed premises.<\/p>\n


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The illegal products seized included counterfeit and cheap foreign labelled products that breach consumer protection legislation and are also non-duty paid; these cannot be legally sold in the UK.<\/p>\n


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The contents of all cigarettes are harmful and contain around 4,000 different chemicals, including 60 known carcinogens.<\/p>\n


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Children and young smokers are often targeted by people selling illegal cigarettes, making it easier for them to get hooked on smoking \u2013 and cheap cigarettes also make it harder for people to stop and remain smoke free.<\/p>\n


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Cllr Barbara Dring, Chair of the city council\u2019s Licensing and Public Protection Committee, said: \u00a0\u201cThese raids have successfully taken around \u00a33,700 of illegal tobacco and \u00a3700 of illicit alcohol out of circulation, which we believe has strong links with wider criminal activity and brings crime into our neighbourhoods. This is why it\u2019s so important to clamp down on it.<\/p>\n


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\u201cThose involved in dealing in illegal tobacco may be encouraging people, including children, to smoke by providing a cheap source. \u00a0Selling illegal tobacco is a crime which also impacts on those businesses that are trading legally.<\/p>\n


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\u201cOffenders need to know that they will face consequences if they choose to deal in these illegal products \u2013 recent prosecutions have resulted in significant fines and suspended jail sentences, that\u2019s the cost they face for trading in illicit tobacco and alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n


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Birmingham City Council\u2019s Trading Standards Service continues to focus on intelligence-led inspections to stamp out the illegal supply, working with their partners in HMRC and West Midlands Police to focus their activities. \u00a0It is clear that the intelligence in these cases was accurate as six out of the seven premises were found with illegal products. Investigations will continue and may result in legal action.<\/p>\n


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Birmingham citizens can help keep illegal tobacco out of their local area by contacting Trading Standards via Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 03454 04 05 06 or calling Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111<\/p>\n


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Officers in Birmingham confiscate 12,400 illegal cigarettes in city raids Illegal cigarettes and alcohol worth nearly \u00a34,500 were seized by trading standards officers in a series of planned raids on seven retail premises across Birmingham yesterday. Teams of officers targeted shops and off licences in east Birmingham using two sniffer dogs, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}