Tackling shops selling illegal, dangerous tobacco

Sniffer dog Skye is helping crackdown on illicit tobacco sales to protect the safety of county residents.

Lincolnshire Trading Standards is stepping up the war on illegal cigarettes, vapes and tobacco, and the rogue traders who put residents’ health at risk by selling them.

Since 2023 the county council department and its partners have issued 135 closures for shops
and in 2024 alone, 65 premises were forcibly closed and 670,000 illicit cigarettes were removed from Lincolnshire’s streets – a 150 per cent increase on the year before.

Cllr Alex McGonigle, executive councillor for community safety at the council, said: “We’re clamping down hard on rogue traders who put residents’ lives at risk by selling illegal tobacco products. These shops contribute to anti-social behaviour and are often a front for other serious crimes such as illegal working.”

For principal trading standards officer, Andy Wright, stubbing out illicit tobacco is about protecting people’s safety. 

“These products are dangerous. It’s written on the packs that cigarettes kill people, that’s no surprise. But house fires caused by smoking materials result in more deaths than any other type of fire.

"Illegal cigarettes rarely comply with fire safety standards and usually lack the self-extinguishing feature of legal ones, making them a major cause of house fires. The majority of the cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco we come across are not simply illegally imported, they are counterfeit.

“We’ve seen the shocking consequences of using these products first hand. In Lincolnshire there have been deaths associated with house fires caused by illegal cigarettes. A house in Wyberton, near Boston, was left devastated by a fire caused by an illegal cigarette that didn’t self-extinguish.

“On top of this, in most towns across Lincolnshire the shops that sell these products are found in areas where residents have reported a fear of crime, anti-social behaviour, and where women in particular feel vulnerable. 

“Trading Standards conduct regular test purchase operations using volunteers under the age of 18 to try and buy age restricted products. We have found shops selling illegal cigarettes and vapes are 14 times more likely to sell them to children. We’ll continue to protect people and take action against these shops wherever they appear.”

The public can help by anonymously reporting instances of illegal tobacco sales or associated criminality by calling Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, or visit  https://crimestoppers-uk.org/give-information to give information online.

Picture: Lincolnshire County Council