Shop caught selling illegal tobacco applies for new licence

A shop forced to close after being caught selling thousands of pounds worth of fake cigarettes could soon reopen under new plans.

International Mini Market in Evesham’s Port Street closed after being found to be selling fake cigarettes and rolling tobacco on several occasions during several stings by Worcestershire Trading Standards.

A new application for a licence to sell alcohol from the shop between 7am and midnight every day has been put forward by Chloe Hobbis.

Previous licence holder Daniel-Gabriel Gisca was stripped of his right to sell cigarettes and alcohol from the shop by Wychavon District Council in April – just months after taking over the reins.

Kosar Johar Mohammed, who was the licence holder before Mr Gisca, was found in possession of more than a thousand packs of fake cigarettes and more than half a kilo of rolling tobacco worth around £15,000 following two stings last year.

Mr Gisca was said to have shown “complete disregard” and had “catastrophically failed” to follow the conditions of his licence and had continued to be “systematically involved” in the sale of fake cigarettes from his shop despite previous warnings.

At a licensing meeting in Pershore in April, Chris Coxon from Worcestershire Trading Standards said the shop had a “long history” dating back to 2017 when the first seizure of counterfeit cigarettes was made – albeit under different owners – and was still “heavily involved in the sale of illicit tobacco” during new investigations in 2021.

Trading standards said there were “major non-compliances” during a visit last month where officers found hundreds of miniature vodka bottles on display shop’s counter “would have easily been accessed by a child.”

Officers found no fake cigarettes in the shop during the inspection but did log “suspicious activity” which was later discovered to be “runners” leaving and returning to the shop with counterfeit products once an order had been placed at the counter.

Just this week, Worcestershire Trading Standards revealed it had seized more than 200,000 illegal cigarettes and 57 kilos of counterfeit rolling tobacco from criminal traders across the county in the past 12 months.