Shopkeeper sentenced over counterfeit cigarettes

Trading Standards officers seized counterfeit cigarettes in two raids on the shop

A Lincolnshire shopkeeper has been sentenced for selling illegal cigarettes.

Trading Standards officers twice bought counterfeit products from the store in Sheep Market in Spalding.

Shopkeeper Ali Idris Khader, 52, pleaded guilty to offences relating to proceeds of crime, tobacco regulation offences, and trademark offences.

He was sentenced last week at Lincoln Magistrates' Court to 13 months custody, suspended for 12 months.

Khader, of Ewetree Drive in Leicester, was also given a rehabilitation order and an overnight curfew for four months.

When officers first bought counterfeit cigarettes in February 2023, the shop was raided and the fake products seized.

After a second raid by officers in June 2023 the shop was given a closure order and shut down for three months.

Senior Lincolnshire Trading Standards officer Kimberley Marshall said the county council was "committed to tackling the sale and supply of illicit tobacco".

"Some people may not fully realise the seriousness of this crime, and that these products are often unsafe knockoffs, made in unhygienic conditions, and can pose a real fire safety risk," she said.

"The illicit tobacco trade can also fund other organised crime.

“People in Lincolnshire have died in house fires caused by these types of cigarettes, and shops selling threaten the livelihoods of legitimate law-abiding businesses."

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