Legal News

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has prosecuted a retailer who sold illegal tobacco to an underage customer during a Trading Standards test purchase exercise.

Trading Standards carried out the exercise at S&G News, Campbell Road in Stoke on 22 October 2015, during which shop owner Salvatore Gentile, 63, of Campbell Road in Stoke failed to ask a 14-year-old customer for proof of age when buying Mayfair-branded cigarettes.

The cigarettes turned out to be counterfeit and a warrant was carried out at the premises in December 2015, during which further seizures of illegal tobacco were made.

On 15 March 2017, Gentile entered a guilty plea at Stafford Crown Court to one offence of supplying a packet of counterfeit tobacco.

He was given a 12-month community order of 150 hours and ordered to pay £1,000 in costs.

The underage sales offence was dealt with by Magistrates on Monday 24 April at the North Staffordshire Justice Centre, when Gentile pleaded guilty. He was handed a fine of £1,000, £100 in costs and a £100 victim surcharge.

The council’s Cabinet Member for housing, communities and safer city and chair of the Stoke-on-Trent Tobacco Control Alliance – Councillor Randy Conteh, said:

“Smoking can cause serious health problems for young people – and it’s very important that these test purchasing exercises are carried out to ensure that traders are complying with this very necessary law.

“The additional offence of selling counterfeit tobacco makes this an even more serious case.

“People who deal in illegal tobacco are more likely to encourage others – especially children and young adults – to smoke; and they are also harming legitimate businesses and damaging communities.

“We are very pleased with the outcome of this court case – and hope it will be a successful deterrent for any other traders who may be tempted to break the law in this way.”

Duncan Lewis Criminal Lawyers – Public Protection Offences

Duncan Lewis Criminal Lawyers can advise at any stage of a public protection offence, including charges involving selling counterfeit goods, selling illicit alcohol or tobacco products, weights and measures issues, mislabelling offences, food hygiene breaches, selling restricted items to minors, breaches of health and safety regulations – and selling or offering for sale produce which fails to meet minimum quality standards.

There are Duncan Lewis offices nationwide and in most major cities – and Duncan Lewis can advise on police raids and premises inspections by Trading Standards or local authority fraud teams.

For expert legal advice on public protection offences, call Duncan Lewis criminal lawyers on 0333 772 0409.

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