A barber sold counterfeit cigarettes and tobacco to customers at his shop posing a risk to their health.



Anthony Eddleston told trading standard officers who raided his premises at St Annes that he decided to sell the goods despite "knowing they were a bit naughty."

He was selling pirate cigarettes for £3 a packet and 80 percent of the goods the trading officers seized were counterfeit.

Eddleston, aged 63, of Revidge Road, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to three offences.

He admitted selling cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco without health warnings, supplying 28 packs of electronic cigarette refills without proper labelling and possessing 133 tobacco products with a false trademark.

He was fined £250 with £100 costs and ordered to pay £30 victims' surcharge by Blackpool magistrates.

Presiding magistrate, Christine Greaves, told him: "You were selling products which were not controlled and that was a risk to the public."

Nicholas McNamara, prosecuting for Lancashire County Council's Trading Standards Department, said on June 16 last year trading standard officers went to Tony's Barbers, Wood Street, after a tip-off.

They seized 161 counterfeit and duty-free packets of cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco plus 28 packs of electronic cigarette refills.

All were improperly labelled without text or picture health warnings and 80 percent of the goods taken away were counterfeit.

Officers also seized £1,830 in cash which was forfeited in an uncontested Proceeds of Crime application last year.

The prosecutor said: "Counterfeit tobacco products pose a risk to the consumer as there is no control into what goes into making them."

He added that selling cigarettes so cheaply, at £3 a pack as Eddleston was doing, made them more attractive to children and adults, affected the livelihood of law-abiding shopkeepers and deprived the exchequer of revenue from tax and VAT.

It had been calculated that the potential lost revenue to the exchequer from the products Eddleston had for sale would have been £1,200.

When interviewed Eddleston said he originally bought the tobacco products from a man for his own use.

Eddleston, who had no previous convictions, told magistrates: "It happened without me really thinking about it. I did not realise the seriousness of it. It was just trade to me, a way of making extra money. I won't be doing it again."