Derby City Council’s Trading Standards team have successfully closed a Normanton convenience store found to be selling illicit tobacco products.
Leman Shop received an initial 48-hour closure notice from Trading Standards on Monday 13 November when officers found 2,340 illegal cigarettes and 800 grams of tobacco hidden in a concealment.
The case was then heard in Derby Magistrates Court on Wednesday 15 November, who ordered that the shop be closed for three months, with the option to extend to six.
This is the second closure order of its kind, after a shop was closed in Spondon in January for selling vapes to children.
Trading Standard’s received complaints in 2022 that the shop was selling illicit products, and test purchasing exercises were carried out. In June 2022 over 16,000 cigarettes and 116 over-capacity vapes were seized. A further seizure in August confirmed that the shop was still selling illicit products.
A second test purchasing exercise was failed in January 2023, with the follow up visits in May and July leading to nearly 36,000 cigarettes, 148 pouches of tobacco and 146 over-capacity vapes being seized.
In September 2023 it was discovered that the shop owner was storing illicit tobacco products at a residential address where over 208,000 cigarettes and 32kg of tobacco were found. A further 14,000 cigarettes, 4 kg tobacco and 101 vapes were later discovered in the shop, the same day.
In total, roughly 275,000 cigarettes, 46kg of rolling tobacco, and 378 illegal vapes have been seized from Leman Shop and associated premises, with a genuine retail value of over £190,000. These illegal products have also evaded almost £100,000 in taxes.
Councillor Shiraz Khan, Cabinet Member for Housing, Property and Regulatory Services, said:
“Our Trading Standards team continue to work hard to tackle the sale of illicit tobacco products in Derby. We have a duty to protect the people of Derby, and this closure order shows that we are prepared to use all powers at our disposal to get these products out of shops.”