Illegal cigarettes caught in more than half of tobacco shops on Home Secretary's front door

Illegal tobacco has been caught in more than half of the tobacco shops in Shabana Mahmood's constituency.

An investigation carried out "test purchasing operations" in the Home Secretary's Birmingham Ladywood constituency - and found cheap illegal cigarettes in 53 per cent of shops.

Illegal tobacco has been linked to organised international crime networks and money laundering, with around £2billion of Treasury revenue lost as a result of illicit sales, JTI's It Costs More Than You Think campaign revealed.

Last night, Ms Mahmood announced a new national crackdown on dodgy high street shops such as vape stores, barbers, mini-marts and sweet shops.

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Under current rules in England and Wales, businesses can be closed while under investigation for three months, with an option to extend to the closure to six months.

But new proposals would double the maximum time a shop can be closed up to 12 months, allowing investigators to gather evidence and prevent rogue operators from reopening and resuming illegal actions.

Last month, the Home Office announced £30million of new funding to boost police and trading standard's response to organised crime, with thousands of businesses expected to be raided.

Howver, JTI is calling for the Government to go further and attach fines of up to £10,000 to closure orders, to be paid before a shop can reopen.

It has also called for those fines to be ringfenced in order to reinvest in Trading Standards resources and self-fund further enforcement.

Nicky Small, the corporate affairs and communications director at JTI said: "Today’s proposal to allow authorities to shut down illegal shops for longer is a welcome move by the Home Secretary.

"It sends a clear signal to retailers breaking the law that selling illegal products will not be tolerated.

"However, more is needed. Illegal tobacco is not a victimless trade. It undercuts legitimate retailers, deprives the Treasury of £2billion in revenue and is increasingly linked to wider criminality on Britain’s high streets.

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"Without stronger penalties for selling and distributing illegal tobacco, coupled with a nationwide licensing scheme and significantly increased funding for enforcement activity, the problem will continue to grow."

Announcing the proposals, the Home Secretary said people felt their high streets were being taken over by "organised crime [and] immigration criminality", adding the Government was "not prepared to tolerate it".

The criminality on the streets "makes people lose faith, not just in their local area but in democracy, in what our country is, and we can't let that happen", Ms Mahmood said.

Last week, the Home Secretary joined a raid of mini-marts on Soho Road in the Handsworth area of Birmingham, bordering her constituency.

One shop was found to be selling illegal cigarettes and snuff, with the shopworker admitting he thought selling illegal tobacco was wrong.

John Herriman, chief executive at the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, praised the announcement by the Home Secretary, saying it was an "important first step" to tackle criminality on the high street.

The policy proposals will undergo a consultation with interested parties and regulations to extend closure expected to be laid by the end of 2026, the Government said.

Last month, the Government announced a specialised High Street organised crime unit to crackdown on illicit working and deliver new police and Trading Standards officers.

The National Crime Agency estimated at least £12billion of criminal cash was generated in the UK each year, with £1billion laundered through dodgy high street businesses.

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