Fined: Wembley shop owner caught selling banned cigarettes and tobacco products for a second time

Banned oral tobacco (Pic: Brent Council) (Image: Archant)

Jaydeep Bharat Thakker has also been ordered to do 100 hours of community service after officers from Brent Trading Standards Team discovered the contraband for sale at Sangit Paan House in Wembley High Road.

Willesden Magistrates Court heard officers seized 260 packs of Chaini Khaini oral tobacco, 74 packets of cigarettes (20s), 67 Beedi’s (various brands) and 104 Chewing Tobacco packs that failed to have the required health warnings on them.

They also found counterfeit cigarette lighters with premiership football clubs logos and the shop failed to display a mandatory tobacco notice.

Thakkar claimed to be unaware that it was illegal to sell oral tobacco and he believed t the warnings on the cigarettes was adequate.

The illegal products were stored in drawers (Pic: Brent Council) (Image: Archant)

He was ordered to pay £557 costs and his company Sangit Paan House Limited was fined £600 plus costs of £557 and a victim surcharge of £60.

The owner of a shop in Wembley High Road has been fined and ordered to carry out community service for his second offence of selling banned oral tobacco products and cigarettes without adequate health warnings.

Thakkar had been convicted of a similar offence in October last year.

Cllr Muhammed Butt, leader of Brent Council, said: “We want everyone who shops in Brent to be able to buy safe and correctly labelled products. We’ll continue to crack down on business owners who put profits before the wellbeing of their customers.

Inside the shop (Pic: Brent Council) (Image: Archant)

“This business owner showed a blatant disregard for the law, having previously been convicted and is now paying the price for his actions. The sentence showed how seriously the court took this matter by giving Thakker a community penalty. This is another good result from Brent’s Trading Standards Team.”