Largest ever seizure of illegal tobacco in Calderdale
Friday 10 May
An operation in Halifax between West Yorkshire Trading Standards, West Yorkshire Police from Halifax and Wagtail UK, targeting dealers of cheap and illicit tobacco resulted in a seizure of almost 420,000 cigarettes, 14.85kg of Hand Rolling Tobacco, 590 Oversize Vapes & 48 pouches of shisha tobacco. If genuine, the value of the seizure would be over £350,000 with a loss of duty to the tax payer of almost £200,000. A quantity of cash was also seized, believed to be the proceeds of crime from the sales of illicit tobacco.
A total of 8 premises were visited across Calderdale in which illegal practices were taking place. The operation targeted hot spot areas and businesses identified from intelligence and complaints passed to West Yorkshire Trading Standards by members of the public and partner agencies. On one of the premises, over 19,000 packets of illegal cigarettes were uncovered, representing a total of over 385,000 cigarettes, the largest seizure in Calderdale to date by the team, and the second largest seizure across West Yorkshire in the 10 years of the Illicit Tobacco initiative.
In a number of premises, officers found illicit tobacco hidden in various concealments built into wheelie bins, store rooms and behind the counter. Serious criminality was disrupted as a result of the operation with further action to be taken in the form of legal proceedings, alcohol licence reviews and the potential for evictions of traders by landlords of the businesses.
The Tackling Illicit Tobacco for Better Health Programme, funded by the five Public Health departments, is helping people to stop tobacco use for good by educating communities and by investigating traders who supply cheap and illicit tobacco. The initiative uses multi-agency enforcement and community marketing campaigns to tackle the problems of the illicit trade.
Illicit Tobacco is often less than half the tax-paid price of legally sold tobacco, this maintains smokers in their habit and encourages young people to start smoking. Illegal Tobacco trading creates a cheap source for children and young people to start smoking, severely impacting genuine businesses by undercutting them. It is also linked to organised crime, contributing to an underground economy worth billions of pounds. Victims of human trafficking are sometimes being forced to sell these illegal products in order to pay off debts they may have, or even fearing harm to themselves or their families.
To date the programme has taken almost 13 million illicit cigarettes, and more than 3.5 tonnes of illicit hand rolling tobacco off the streets of West Yorkshire. With more inspections planned in the coming weeks, these figures are set to increase. Training sessions with thousands of members of the public and hundreds of front line professionals have been delivered to raise awareness about the dangers and wider criminality associated with the supply of illicit tobacco.
Linda Davis, Trading Standards Manager, said “We are committed to the fight against illicit tobacco. By taking tough action and working with partners, this operation has taken a significant amount of illicit tobacco and vapes off the streets. Far from being a victimless crime, the illegal trade in tobacco costs government millions each year in lost revenue, makes it easier for children to start smoking, takes advantage of cash-strapped families, and helps fund organised crime.”
Councillor Ann Kingstone, Member of the West Yorkshire Joint Services Committee which oversees the work of Trading Standards said “The illegal sale of tobacco in communities enables and encourages young children to buy it cheaply. It is really positive that so many partners are working to tackle traders that break the law. I would like to thank members of the public for reporting illegal sales and encourage everyone to continue doing so to reduce the harm caused by tobacco in our communities.”.
If you need to report a trader selling cheap and illicit tobacco, please contact the Citizens Advice consumer helpline: 0808 223 1133 anonymously.
Anyone wanting help to quit can find their local Stop Smoking Service at