LoginLincs TS: Record Tobacco Seizure
Huge quantities of illegal cigarettes and tobacco worth more than £140,000 were seized.
Journal of Trading Standards Staff
Posted 01 August 2025 | JoTS Online
Content Tags: Updates|Crime|East Midlands
Lincolnshire Trading Standards has made its biggest ever seizure of illegal tobacco products, removing more than 320,000 illicit cigarettes and 165kg of hand rolling tobacco from two shops and a domestic residence in a series of raids on 23 July.
The business premises where the illegal products were found – Blue Sky on Church Street, Gainsborough and European Shop on Trinity Street, also in Gainsborough – have been hit with three-month closure orders – the maximum period allowed by law. The house where illegal products were found is in the Retford area of Nottinghamshire.
The raids, which were carried out in partnership with Lincolnshire Police and Nottinghamshire Police, also resulted in the arrest of one woman and investigations are ongoing. Lincolnshire County Council says it will consider prosecution where appropriate.
The connections between the sale of illegal cigarettes and organised crime are well documented
Andy Wright, Principal Trading Standards Officer at Lincolnshire County Council, said: “This is an excellent example of partnership working and shows what can be achieved by co-ordinated use of Trading Standards and Police powers.
“We estimate the street value of the goods seized to be in excess of £140,000 and believe they were destined for sale in and around the Gainsborough area, where they would have undermined legitimate, law-abiding businesses.
“The connections between the sale of illegal cigarettes and organised crime are well documented. In many cases those involved will have connections to drugs, people trafficking, and money laundering. It is common for my officers to find people with no UK right to work in sole charge of shops selling illegal cigarettes and vapes. In those instances, we work jointly with Police and Immigration Officers.
“Many of the cigarettes seized are counterfeit. These commonly do not self-extinguish if left unattended. Legal cigarettes are required to self-extinguish as a safety feature. Nationally the Fire Service cite unattended cigarettes as the number one cause of house fires in the UK. Clearly, illegal cigarettes will make up a sizeable proportion of those statistics. Unfortunately Trading Standards are aware of a number of incidents in Lincolnshire where serious injury and death has resulted from house fires directly caused by illegal cigarettes.”
Lincolnshire Police Sergeant, Jason Bennett, added: “We remain steadfast in our commitment to keeping our communities safe and disrupting the criminal networks that profit from illicit tobacco. The work we undertake in close collaboration with our partners at Lincolnshire County Council Trading Standards continues to disrupt this illegal trade that not only harms public health – it also fuels broader criminal activity and undermines legitimate businesses. By working closely with multi-agency partners and acting on intelligence, we’re sending a clear message: we won’t tolerate crime that puts our residents at risk.”
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Content Tags: Updates|Crime|East Midlands
