Telford shopkeeper who sold illegal tobacco must pay £575
A Telford shopkeeper caught selling customers illegal tobacco and cigarettes has been ordered to pay more than £500.
Sibil Ulku, 53, admitted an offence of dealing in dealing in non-UK duty paid cigarettes at Telford Magistrates Court.
He had been selling the cigarettes and tobacco at High Street Off Licence in High Street, Wellington. Officers found 17,500 cigarettes and 8.15kg of hand-rolling tobacco worth more than £7,431 in lost duty during a swoop at the premises.
About 30 officers from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), West Mercia Police and Telford and Shropshire Trading Standards – plus a tobacco sniffer dog – descended on the off-licence, along with four other shops and two self-storage units on February 1 this year.
Officers seized the cigarettes and tobacco that were found behind the counter, in a storage area, and in a kitchen.
The defendant, of Woodside Road, Ketley, Telford, was fined £400, with £175 costs. HMRC will now try to recoup the lost duty from him.
HMRC fraud investigation service assistant director Nick Stone said: “The sale of illegal tobacco and alcohol will not be tolerated by us or our partner agencies.
“Disrupting criminal trade is at the heart of our strategy to clampdown on the illicit tobacco market, which costs the UK around £2.5 billion a year, and the sale of illicit alcohol which costs the UK around £1.3 billion per year. This is theft from the taxpayer and undermines legitimate traders.”
February’s raids in Telford and Shrewsbury uncovered more than 25,000 cigarettes, 18 kilos of hand-rolling tobacco and nearly 3,500 litres of alcohol.
Ulku, a Turkish speaker, was prosecuted under the Tobacco Products Duty Act 1979.
