A raid on a series of shops in a bustling town centre resulted in the seizure of hundreds of illegal vapes and more than a thousand counterfeit cigarettes. Kent Police, in collaboration with Kent County Council (KCC), conducted checks on the compliance of various disposable e-cigarette and other smoking devices earlier this month.
Three unnamed businesses inspected in Ashford were found to be selling illegal products – with 880 vapes, 1,680 cigarette sticks, 600g of hand rolling tobacco, and 66 tubs of nicotine pouches confiscated. These were products that failed to meet UK safety standards – either due to exceeding the legal size or lacking the correct labels and warnings.
Health experts have warned that these pose serious health risks and could potentially entice children to smoke or vape due to their low cost. Jim Whiddett, the trading standards operations manager, stated: “The teams have seen various types of illegal vapes, the largest being a 15,000 puff device with a single tank – well over 20 times the size for a legal product.
“They are also seeing devices without the correct labelling or warnings, meaning they have not passed the appropriate checks to ensure they are safe to use, therefore increasing the risk to consumers. Trading Standards will continue to remove illegal tobacco, vapes, and nicotine pouches from shops in Kent as this illegal activity brings criminals into our communities and can also encourage children to smoke or vape due to the cheap price of the products.”
PC Aaron Hobday, from Ashford’s Beat Team, added: “As neighbourhood policing officers, we use any information we pick up during our beat to keep people safe, be that from crime or illegal products like these. By working with Trading Standards in this instance, we are helping to keep Ashford safe and preventing potentially dangerous products from being sold to the public.”
Mr Whiddett added: “It is clear from some of the evidence that some shops are continuing to supply illegal products despite the team’s advice.” We will continue to work with partner agencies to engage with retailers to ensure compliance or disrupt this illegal activity with further interventions when appropriate.”