Posted on Tuesday 4th December 2018
A Burton shop owner and his employee have been ordered to pay over £2,000 in fines and costs after trading standards officers discovered illicit tobacco and alcohol on sale at a town centre unit last year.
Bestoon Khalid Ali, director of Grosik Mini Market in Derby Street, must pay £1,537 in fines, costs and a victim surcharge after pleading guilty to two offences under the Licencing Act and one under Consumer Protection and Unfair Trading Regulations.
His employee Kastro Piruti was ordered to pay £568 in fines and costs for selling the items on December 13 last year.
Ali, 37, of Charnwood Road, Shepshed and Piruti, 31, of Southworth Road, Derby, were sentenced yesterday at North Staffordshire Justice Centre.
Following intelligence, Staffordshire County Council’s trading standards team visited the shop and found 440 illicit cigarettes on sale with no health warning. They also found 19 bottles of illicit vodka, branded Krupnik and Zubrowka.
Alcohol sales have already been suspended at the shop.
Staffordshire County Council’s communities leader Gill Heath said:
"Illicit tobacco and alcohol can be particularly harmful to people’s health as they do not comply with safety and consumer regulations.
They also evade tax which ultimately affects public services and their sale can fund criminal gangs. We are pleased therefore that our trading standards team has bought another successful prosecution which has removed illicit produce from sale and helped to protect legitimate businesses.”
Anyone with information about the sale of illicit goods can call Staffordshire’s confidential trading standards line on 01785 330356.