A shopkeeper caught selling illegal cigarettes has been hit with a £300 fine.
Haydar Gunduz, who owns Continental Food Store, in Broad Street, Dagenham, was found stocking tobacco products without English safety warnings.
Barking and Dagenham Council’s Trading Standards team found 1,300 packs of foreign cigarettes, 2,110 grams of rolling tobacco, equivalent to 600 packets, and 740 packs of non-duty cigarettes.
Mr Gunduz was found guilty of four offences at Barkingside Magistrates Court, under the Tobacco Products Regulations 2002 and Consumer Protection Act 1987.
He was fined £300 and forced to pay £180 costs to the council when he appeared last month.
Newly-elected council leader, Cllr Darren Rodwell, said: “We welcome people to come to our borough and set up businesses, but at the same time we want them to recognise that they have a social responsibility to local people to do so in the right way and obey the laws of the land.
“The message to those involved is loud and clear - stop supplying illicit tobacco or any other substandard products or service in our borough or face the consequences.”
To report illicit tobacco products being purchased, contact Trading Standards on 084 5404 0506, Barking and Dagenham Direct on 020 8215 3000 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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