Shopkeeper sentenced for selling illegal cigarettes

A shopkeeper found with '˜black bags containing thousands of cigarettes' has been given suspended prison sentence.
Mohammad Medhi Mohammad has been given a 17 week sentence (suspended for two years).Mohammad Medhi Mohammad has been given a 17 week sentence (suspended for two years).
Mohammad Medhi Mohammad has been given a 17 week sentence (suspended for two years).

Mohammad Medhi Mohammadi, 30, of Cavendish Street, Peterborough, has been given a 17-week sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to pay £2,500 for the possession and sale of unsafe, counterfeit and non-English labelled illicit tobacco products.

Mohammadi was, in December, found guilty of 13 offences relating to the possession of illicit tobacco products that were offered for sale at his shop International Mini Supermarket, in Boston.

They included two counts of supplying an unsafe product, nine counts of contravening or failing to comply with provisions in the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013, one count of having possession of a packet of cigarettes which bore signs likely to be mistaken for a registered trademark, namely ‘Winston’, and one charge of commissioning a further offence while subject to an order of conditional discharge for two years for seven offences of supplying goods prohibited by safety regulations and six of selling food after the use by or sell by date.

Mohammad Medhi Mohammad has been given a 17 week sentence (suspended for two years).Mohammad Medhi Mohammad has been given a 17 week sentence (suspended for two years).
Mohammad Medhi Mohammad has been given a 17 week sentence (suspended for two years).

The court was told, how in 2015, after a number of complaints from members of the public, Lincolnshire Trading Standards and Lincolnshire Police raided Mohammadi’s shop on Boston’s High Street and found thousands of cigarettes in black bin bags.

Following the sentencing on Monday, January 11, Andy Wright, principal trading standards officer at Lincolnshire County Council, said: “We continue to tackle the trade of illicit tobacco and every complaint we receive is investigated fully.

“I thank the public for bringing traders of illegal tobacco to our attention, and encourage them to continue doing so.”

Anyone suspected of selling cheap, illegal cigarettes should call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

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