The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A campaigner against illegal cigarettes has called on courts to get tough on those caught selling them after a Spalding shopkeeper got away with a conditional discharge.
Former Spalding retailer Julie Grant’s mum June Buffham was killed in a house fire started by a fake cigarette in April 2012.
She is now a vociferous campaigner against the potentially lethal cigarettes and a keen supporter of a campaign highlighting their dangers.
This week she has spoken out against the sentence of a former Spalding shopkeeper who appeared in court to face charges of selling non-duty paid and foreign labeled cigarettes.
A total of 7,280 cigarettes were seized after Indie, a trained sniffer dog led her handler to a compartment hidden in the floor of the former Kubus shop in Spalding’s Sheepmarket during a raid by Trading Standards accompanied by Lincolnshire Police in October last year.
Hardi Tofiq Mohammed (29) appeared in Boston Court last Wednesday and pleaded guilty to four charges. He was handed a two year conditional discharge and ordered to pay legal costs of £1,000 plus a victim surcharge of £15.
But Julie, who closed her business, Butters, in New Road, this summer, said she was surprised by the sentence.
She said: “Whilst I am of course pleased that the owner of Kubus has been taken to court after all the hard work by Trading Standards, I was very surprised at how lenient the court was.
“Trading Standards with the help of trained dogs, found the under floor remote controlled compartment which in itself shows what lengths some shops are going to in order to hide illicit cigarettes.
“This is a nationwide problem and in my opinion the courts need to come down harsher on those selling these cigarettes in order to get the message across that as a country we want to get this trade stopped.
“Raids are being done all over the UK by Trading Standards and specialist dog teams and I hope that in time we will read that a court has taken a stronger approach to deal with this issue.”
Emma Milligan, senior Trading Standards officer, said: “Cigarettes that don’t have UK safety messages on them are illegal and they also haven’t had any tax paid on them, which isn’t fair on the majority of shops which sell genuine ones.”
If you believe a trader in is supplying illegal cigarettes, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
