The owners of two shops in Kilburn and Queen’s Park have been fined for selling illegal tobacco products.
Mohammad Hashim Aryubi, 24, the company director of Aryubi Express Limited, a small supermarket in Kilburn High Road, was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay costs of £961 for the offence.
Willesden Magistrates Court heard trading standards officers from Brent Council seized 83 pouches of hand rolling tobacco, 25 packets of shisha tobacco molasses and 133 packets of cigarettes, all without the mandatory health warnings in English.
Karim Kedr, of Malvern Road, Kilburn, owner of Best Price Supermarket in Kilburn Lane, was fined £1,100 and ordered to pay costs of £931.
The court heard trading standard officers confiscated a 504 packs of cigarettes and 159 packs of shisha tobacco, all without or with incorrect health warnings in English from the 45-year-old’s store.
Cllr Michael Pavey, Brent Council’s cabinet member for stronger communities, said: “We will not stand for anyone selling illegal tobacco in our communities.
“All tobacco must be correctly labelled and displayed. We will not allow businesses to break these rules to increase their profits.
“People who are dealing in illegal tobacco products should take these latest prosecutions as a further warning. Our trading standards officers are working hard to keep these illegal products off the streets and are cracking down on the businesses and individuals that flout the law.”
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