Illegal cigarettes and vapes worth £500,000 seized

Nicholas Thomas, local democracy reporter

A council’s trading standards officers have seized illegal tobacco and vape products worth more than half a million pounds so far this year.

The Newport City Council team has confiscated goods at 25 businesses since April, worth an estimated £533,000.

Among the items the officers seized were 92,000 cigarettes, 80kg of tobacco, 130 counterfeit goods and 6,000 “unsafe” vapes.

Illegal products

Trading standards “routinely” seizes illegal products, and also targets businesses to make sure under-18s are not able to buy age-restricted items such as vapes and cigarettes.

So far this year, the team has used volunteers to test 49 retailers in Newport, of which eight have failed to comply with the rules.

The businesses which failed received further guidance on the rules, a council report shows.

Last year, the council’s trading standards team seized illegal cigarettes, tobacco and vapes worth £600,000 – and found 17 of 60 businesses failed so-called test purchases for sales of age-restricted products to children.