POLICE in Gloucestershire are cracking down on illegal tobacco sellers across the county.
Recent raids by Gloucestershire County Council's trading standards team have resulted in an increasing amount of convictions for the sellers.
Among them was Amratlal Fatania, from World Foods in Russell Street, Stroud, who in April pleaded guilty to eight charges of possessing incorrectly labelled and counterfeit tobacco products, and was sentenced to 40 weeks in prison.
At a trading standards event at Waterwells Police HQ in Quedgeley on Monday, Gloucestershire County Council and Gloucestershire police pledged to continue their work tracking down and prosecuting those who sell illegal tobacco.
Eddie Coventry, head of trading standards at Gloucestershire County Council, said: “The sale of illegal tobacco is a problem that’s growing. We’ve already confiscated 400,000 individual cigarettes and 320kg of illegal hand-rolling tobacco.
“Though we have taken successful action against a number of sellers in the county with custodial sentences and hefty fines, we need to keep working hard to ensure that we find every illegal dealer.
“Illegal tobacco is a big issue as it can contain harmful substances, be sold at what we call ‘pocket money prices’ more attractive to children and young people, as well as undermining legitimate tobacco sellers.”
He said that as criminals are finding more sophisticated ways of hiding the tobacco, teams are using sniffer dogs, funded by Smoke Free South West, to help them on raids.
Stuart Phillips, a dog handler, said that dogs like 5-year-old cocker spaniel Phoebe were invaluable to the operation.
"These dogs sniff out hidden tobacco in a matter of seconds. They find things that we humans can't."
Cllr Andrew Gravells, cabinet member for public health and communities said, “Smoking is a serious public health issue and cheap illegal tobacco just makes it even harder for people to quit.
“That’s why GCC’s public health and trading standards teams are working together to help tackle the problem.
“The work that the trading standards teams and their partners do is invaluable in keeping Gloucestershire free from illegal tobacco.”
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