Shop ordered to close as crackdown on illicit tobacco and vapes continues

Flavour Vapes at Bishop Auckland has been ordered to close after we recovered illicit products with a combined retail value of more than £6,000.

We applied to a court for the closure having recovered illicit cigarettes, hand-rolling tobacco and electronic cigarettes or vapes.

Flavour Vapes is the thirteenth shop we have successfully applied to have closed for selling illicit tobacco since January 2018. Ten of these have been since 2022 as we have increased our activity to tackle supply of illegal products. As a result of these applications by us, shops selling illicit tobacco have been closed for a total of 51 months. We have also successfully applied for extensions to a number of the original closure orders, which has resulted in such premises being closed for a further 13 months.

We have also seized more than 6,500 illegal vapes, worth £80,000, since March 2022.

Late last year, our full council also backed a motion stating its support for government plans to create a smokefree generation and tackle youth vaping.

Gary Carr, our strategic regulation manager, said: "We are really pleased to have secured our thirteenth closure order for illicit tobacco and vapes since January 2018.

"The damage that can be caused by illicit tobacco products including vapes is considerable. It has adverse affects on health, makes it easier for children to get hold of such products, undermines work to reduce smoking and vaping, and attracts criminality to communities.

"We very much hope the action we have taken shows just how serious we are in County Durham about tackling the supply of illicit tobacco and vapes and sends out a message to anyone tempted to trade in them."

Trading standards' first visit

Peterlee magistrates heard trading standards officers first visited Flavour Vapes, on Newgate Street, in October last year. They observed a man behind the counter showing customers 'Big Puff' vapes with liquid content of 10 ml with 4,000 puff capacity. The court heard this is in breach of the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 which give a liquid content limit of 2ml, that would typically allow around 600 puffs. The products were seized.

Officers returned to the shop the next day to give advice and guidance. On seeing them, the man who had been behind the counter the previous day grabbed a black bag and ran away. He and another man were given a formal warning for selling vapes which breach the regulations.

Nine days later, an officer carried out a test purchase in which the man who had run away during the earlier visit told him 'Big Puff' vapes and illicit tobacco were available but only after 6pm each day.

A further test purchase took place the following month in which the officer was sold a 9,000 puff vape and two packets of cigarettes thought to be counterfeit.

Warrant executed

In December a warrant was executed at the premises. Behind a locked door, a bag was found containing a range of tobacco products believed to be counterfeit and illicit, and four kinds of vape not intended for sale in the UK. Officers seized £1,145.82 as proceeds of crime.

Two men who were in the shop were arrested. In subsequent interview, one admitted selling illicit tobacco and having photos of illicit vapes on his phone to show to customers so they could choose which ones to buy. He also acknowledged the larger puff capacity vapes are illegal in the UK.

Magistrates were told the retail value of items seized from the shop totalled £6,265, with the vapes making up £4,465 of that.

The court also heard that on 5 January this year, officers returned to the shop and found three types of illegal vapes for sale, 12 packets of suspected counterfeit cigarettes and one pouch of hand rolling tobacco also suspected to be counterfeit. These items were seized yet when officers returned just under five hours later, further illegal products were on sale which again were confiscated.

The closure order is in place until 8 April.

Motion

At a full council meeting in December, a motion welcoming the Government's "Stopping the Start" consultation was moved by Cllr Cathy Hunt and received cross-party support.

It was agreed that we would respond to the consultation in support of the Government's proposal to raise the legal age for tobacco sales.

Endorsement of proposed new measures to tighten the promotion, packaging, branding and pricing of vapes to reduce their appeal to children and young people was also agreed.