A man who pleaded guilty to seven offences of possessing illegal tobacco products with intent to supply has been sentenced to 8 months imprisonment for each offence, to run concurrently, suspended for 12 months at Nottingham Magistrates Court today.
Burhan Abdulla was also ordered to complete 70 hours of unpaid work within 12 months and to pay costs of £500.
Nottingham City Council’s Trading Standards Service brought the case to court after it received anonymous information that illegal tobacco products were being stored in a self-storage unit in Nottingham.
On 9 February 2017, Trading Standards officers attended Storage 4 U on Nuthall Road and searched a storage unit there. They located 16 boxes containing 4,377 packets of tobacco products. The packets were intended for a foreign market therefore did not display the required health warnings and no duty had been paid on them.
It is believed that these products would have been sold from shops within the city at between £3.50 and £5.00 per pack so would have a total estimated street value of up £22,000.
It was established that the unit was being paid for in cash by a person giving the name Hassan with an address in Nottingham. However CCTV from the premises clearly showed the defendant attending to pay for the unit on a monthly basis. Further enquiries also identified the address given by Hassan as an old address of the defendant Abdulla.
The defendant Burhan Abdulla (date of birth 05/02/1980) of Newlyn Drive, Nottingham was arrested at his shop premises – Oscars on Radford Road Nottingham. No illegal tobacco products were located within the shop.