Thousands of vapes seized from Oxford Street shops

Thousands of vapes were confiscated by Westminster City Council in Thursday's raids

A haul of vapes, fake Apple products and shisha products said to be worth more than £100,000 has been seized from Oxford Street sweet shops.

More than 6,500 vapes with excessive nicotine and 145 cosmetics products without labelling were found in the raids on Thursday.

Nine shops were shut down in the council crackdown on "dirty money".

Westminster City Council has said there will be "no happy new year for unscrupulous traders".

The council said it had been tipped off by customers who complained about being overcharged.

Officers said they were surprised by the size of the haul, which included powerful vapes containing many times the legal number of individual "puffs".

There were 6,575 vapes confiscated, along with 481 nicotine pouches, 91 counterfeit Apple products, 75 power banks without safety labelling and 136 shisha products without health warnings.

'Dragged the tone down'

The council, which carried out a smaller operation on 10 January, says it has confiscated £120,000 worth of fake goods so far in 2023.

Westminster City Council leader Adam Hug said: "The rash of mixed sweet and souvenir shops which sprang up on Oxford Street during lockdown has dragged the tone of this area down, as well as in some cases openly flouting trading standards laws and fleecing customers.

"However, we are now seeing consistent and determined action by Westminster City Council getting results. In two raids alone this month, we have seized £120,000 worth of goods we suspect to be either illegal or counterfeit."

He added that the council would keep urging ministers to ensure that HMRC and the National Crime Agency had "the resources they need to fight to wider suspected illegality around some of these venues".

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