ILLEGAL tobacco to the tune of £3,000 was siezed by Gloucestershire County Council's trading standards from a false ceiling at a Forest of Dean shop.

After an undercover officer confirmed they were still selling illegal tobacco, the trading standards team revisited the shop last week and seized a large quantity off illegal tobacco from the shop ceiling and small quantity of hand rolling tobacco.

A shop worker was previously arrested at the beginning of February when a car containing illegal tobacco was found and seized by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

On this search, the tobacco was hidden in a purposely constructed compartment in the ceiling of a toilet space. The false part of the ceiling was raised and lowered by two electric gate motors operated by wireless remote control.

The branded cigarettes are believed to be counterfeit meaning that the manufacturer of the cigarettes is unknown and the cigarettes are of unknown quality.

The ‘street value’ of the seized product if it was sold under the counter is approximately £3,236.  The value of genuine products sold at retail price is approximately £5,904 which means the duty avoided amounted to over £3,300.

Cllr Will Windsor-Clive, cabinet member for planning and infrastructure, said: “The trading standards team has done a great job here – twice seizing Illegal tobacco from one shop and showing that this type of activity won’t be tolerated.

"Illegal tobacco can mean cheap tobacco and the cheaper it is the more likely local people are to continue smoking instead of cutting down or stopping. Combined with this the sale of illegal tobacco harms legitimate traders businesses.”

Eddie Coventry, head of trading standards at Gloucestershire County Council, said: "In spite of the action taken by officers on a previous occasion these people have gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal tobacco and continue this illegal trade.

"We will continue to investigate these matters to protect honest traders who are facing unfair competition.

“As this case shows, public information can be invaluable to bringing people to justice. If anyone has information about illegal tobacco in their area then we would encourage them to let us know anonymously by contacting the Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 03454 04 05 06, or via the link on the contact page of our website, www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/glos.”