Shop owner is jailed for selling illegal tobacco despite warnings

THE owner of a shop which sold counterfeit and illegal cigarettes to children has been jailed.

- By JOHN ROGAN

Azem Ahmed, 28, of Vicarage Avenue, Stockton, and business owner (from August 2020) of The Norton Shop on Norton Road, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison at Teesside Crown Court. He previously pleaded guilty to nine charges and was convicted of a further 11 charges in connection with the sale and possession for sale of counterfeit and illicit tobacco, contrary to the Trade Marks Act 1994 and the Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations 2015.

The court heard that Stockton Council’s Trading Standards team began an investigation in January 2019 when a tobacco brand representative contacted them with concerns after making a test purchase at the shop. In January 2019, Trading Standards officers visited the shop to make an undercover purchase, where they were sold a packet of 20 illicit cigarettes.

This packet of cigarettes had no identification numbers and was not in plain standardised packaging as required by the Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations 2015 nor did it include the required health warnings.