Shop owner who was jailed for selling illicit cigarettes ordered to pay £70,000

Trading Standards says it hopes the order shows they are “committed to stripping illegal tobacco traders of their ill-gotten gains.”

Mohammad Riaz was the owner of Sunrise Supermarket on Westfield Road when it was raided by Trading Standards officers in June 2021.

It was part of a joint operation with Bradford Council.

They found hundreds of packets of illicit tobacco hidden across the store, including in a filing cabinet, in boxes stored on the shelves and from within a loft space in the storeroom.

Riaz was behind the counter at the time of the raid.

The products found were 144 20 packs of counterfeit Richmond cigarettes; 116 50g packets of counterfeit Golden Virginia tobacco; 1,742 tobacco products that did not comply with standardised packing rules; and 538 tobacco products without the statutory health warnings.

The contraband was worth tens of thousands of pounds, and was being sold at a much cheaper price than legal tobacco.

Riaz, 68, appeared at Bradford Crown Court last year, charged with possessing goods with a false trade mark for sale, supplying a tobacco product in breach of packaging regulations and supplying a tobacco product which does not carry the combined health warning.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 28 days in prison.

On Tuesday Riaz, of Haslingden Drive, appeared at Bradford Crown Court once again – this time for a proceeds of crime hearing.

Representatives from Trading Standards told the court that officers had investigated Riaz’s finances in the year since his sentencing, and had determined he had made £70,000 worth of financial gain through illegal activity.

Judge Colin Burn accepted this amount, and agreed that Riaz should have to pay back £70,000 through the proceeds of crime act.

He has three months to pay the full amount.

He also imposed a deprivation order meaning Riaz will not be able to get back the items that were seized by Trading Standards – 1,626 packets of counterfeit cigarettes and 116 packs of rolling tobacco.

Trading Standards had asked Judge Burn to award £9,509 costs – which they argued was the cost of investigating and prosecuting the case.

Mr Turner, defending Riaz, said these costs were “not realistic.”

He argued that the Trading Standards investigation had been carried out by staff at the agency, who were essentially doing their job.

He also pointed out that Trading Standards would receive £70,000 from the proceeds of crime hearing.

After a lengthy debate about how courts award costs to groups like Trading Standards, Judge Burn agreed that the £9,509 ask was too high, and instead awarded £900 costs to Trading Standards.

At last year’s sentencing, the court heard Trading Standards and West Yorkshire Police carried out the raid on Sunrise Supermarkets, Westfield Road, off Toller Lane, after a tip off that the store was selling illicit tobacco.

They seized 32,500 cigarettes in total, with the street value of the seizure around £12,000.

In Riaz’s defence, the court heard that he was deeply ashamed of his actions.

Judge Andrew Hatton sentenced Riaz to 28 days in prison, adding: “Such offences strike at the very heart of economy at a time when the economy needs to be as strong as it possibly can be.”

After Tuesday’s proceeds of crime hearing, Linda Davis, West Yorkshire Trading Standards Manager highlighted the dangers of counterfeit tobacco.

She said: “Far from being a victimless crime, Illegal tobacco trading creates a cheap source for children and young people and encourages adults to continue smoking by eroding cost motivation to quit.

“It is also linked to organised crime, human trafficking and contributes to an underground economy worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

“I hope this Proceeds of Crime confiscation order demonstrates that we are committed to stripping illegal tobacco traders of their ill-gotten gains and making sure that crime doesn’t pay.”

There have been a number of prosecutions over contraband tobacco sold at Bradford stores in the past year.

In February Trading Standards revealed that in Bradford alone three million counterfeit cigarettes had been seized in recent years. Ten million had been seized across West Yorkshire.