Shop fined £100k for selling vapes to children

Trading Standards said officers found illicit and noncompliant vapes for sale in the shop

A shop which sold vapes to schoolchildren has been ordered to pay more than £100,000 after a concerned parent contacted Trading Standards officers.

Hundreds of illegal oversized vapes and more than 13,000 illicit cigarettes and tobacco products were found hidden behind a wall and in a loft space at Honey Mini Market in Wolverhampton, the city's Trading Standards team said.

Officers investigated and searched the premises after a parent raised concerns and a 16-year-old volunteer with the team was sold an oversized vape.

Owner and director Shabez Salehi and his company admitted several offences at Dudley Magistrates' Court and were fined £96,000 and ordered to pay costs and victim surcharges.

"This was a dreadful case where a city shop owner not only concealed hundreds of illicit products but also sold them to local schoolchildren," said councillor Bhupinder Gakhal, cabinet member for resident services, at City of Wolverhampton Council.

It is illegal to sell vapes or e-cigarettes to anyone under the age of 18, and the vape sold to the teenager with Trading Standards was not permitted to be on sale in the UK, as it did not meet required specifications, officers said.

Since June 1 this year, sales of disposable vapes have also been banned across the UK.

A covert officer who accompanied the child volunteer was also sold an illicit pack of cigarettes, Trading Standards said.

The team then inspected the store on Warstones Road with a detection dog and discovered 13,920 illicit cigarettes,1.95 kg of illicit hand-rolling tobacco, 200g of shisha and 275 oversized or non-compliant vapes that can exceed legal limits for tank size and nicotine strength.

Illicit cigarettes were also found hidden in a sliding shelving unit located behind a false plasterboard wall

Most were found concealed behind a wall in a washroom near to the counter, and single packets were found in a bespoke sliding shelving unit located behind a false plasterboard wall, the team said.

Further packets and pouches of hand-rolling tobacco were also found in the loft space above the washroom, accessed by a sliding hatch.

Salehi told officers the underage sale was made by the shop's landlord, but the landlord denied responsibility for the shop and said he was helping out in an emergency, Trading Standards added.

He also claimed that the illicit and non-compliant products found at the premises were being stored for someone else, although he provided no evidence to substantiate his claim.

On 27 August Salehi admitted, as well as on behalf of the company trading as Warstones Mini Market, three charges under the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations, two charges under the Children and Families Act, five charges under the Trade Marks Act and one charge under each of the Children and Young Persons (Protection from Tobacco) Act, Companies Act and Proceeds of Crime Act.

Salehi was also given a 12-month community order with 200 hours of unpaid work.

The company was fined £96,000, with costs of £2,540 and a victim surcharge of £2,000, and Salehi was also ordered to pay costs of £2,540 and a victim surcharge of £114.