Trading Standards strikes again!

Five premises were raided last week for illegal products by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council’s Trading Standards team.

On Wednesday 10 December, shops across Blackburn town centre, Ewood, Galligreaves and Highercroft were targeted after the council’s Trading Standards team received intelligence that they were selling products that weren’t lawful.

Supporting the operation was the Neighbourhood Policing team, and a tobacco and vape detection dog called Dora, along with its handler.

A considerable number of illicit cigarettes, tobacco and vapes were found across the five premises, with concealments hiding the goods on two occasions. The concealments, one in the wall of a storeroom and the other hidden down a staircase under boxes were found by the sniffer dog and had to be opened using force. As a result, they were both destroyed.

Across the premises, the following were found:

• 14,447 illicit cigarettes  
• 5kg illicit tobacco
• 124 illicit vapes
• 138 items of food which weren’t labelled in English and therefore dangerous to people with allergies

An investigation will now be held to ascertain full details of the owners, and referrals will be made to HMRC using the track and trace penalty system.

The business owners could receive up to £10,000 fine depending on the amount seized.

Councillor Jim Smith, Executive Member for Environment and Resident Services said:

Our Trading Standards team are absolutely fantastic at what they do, and I’m not surprised that yet again, they’ve been able to take a huge number of dangerous products off our streets.

Without public intelligence, they wouldn’t be able to do to their job, so I’d really encourage anyone who has information about business selling unlawful products to get in touch with us through Citizens Advice.

If you know of a business operating unlawfully in our borough, please report them to Citizens Advice.