Illegal Tobacco – Not a Victimless Crime
HOW do children afford to buy cigarettes? That’s just one of the questions in a new campaign highlighting how the trade in illegal tobacco is damaging the lives of people on estates across the North East.
What at first appears to be a bargain is helping children to smoke, condemning tens of thousands more people to smoking related illnesses in the future, and costing the UK taxpayer around £2.5bn a year.
Research in the North East paints a particular problem with local “tab houses” – with local intelligence suggesting some of these premises specialise in selling to children.
The team behind the “Get Some Answers” campaign has brought together Fresh Smoke Free North East, Police, Trading Standards Officers, HMRC and front line health professionals committed to tackling smoking. Through outdoor advertising, posters, radio adverts and packs for pubs and shops, people can find out the facts for themselves by clicking on www.get-some-answers.co.uk
And anyone with information about people dealing in illegal tobacco can pass it on completely anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or at http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/.
The Facts
Illegal cigarettes and tobacco are usually sold at half or even a third of the price in legitimate retailers, and in a wide range of locations such as the workplace, pubs, private houses and even from ice cream vans.
Illegal tobacco is estimated by Cancer Research UK to cause four times as many deaths as illicit drugs because it discourages smokers from quitting and encourages them to smoke more
Illegal tobacco goes hand in hand with drugs and alcohol, child exploitation, money laundering and even terrorism.Since 2001, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has seized over 14 billion cigarettes, broken up more than 370 criminal gangs and issued over £35m in confiscation orders.
- The World Health Organisation is currently developing a protocol on illicit tobacco to clamp down on illegal tobacco smuggling.
Many of the packets now being seized in the region are cheap whites, manufactured in Eastern Europe or China, and designed purely for the illegal market.
The programme brings together health organisations through Fresh Smoke Free North East, Smoke Free Yorkshire and Humber and Smoke Free North West as well as Trading Standards, the UK Border Agency and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) for the first time in the UK.
The initiative is combining forces to target the trade more closely using shared intelligence, new Inland Detection Teams and regional intelligence teams, and state-of-the-art new equipment, such as hand-held scanners which can detect illegal packs of cigarettes and tobacco.
Councillor Anita Lower as the Executive Member for Regulatory Services in Newcastle commenting on the launch of the campaign said:
"It is often the case that in many of our neighbourhoods, the sale of illicit cigarettes from a front room is the norm. It is also the case that illicit cigarettes are often available in many workplaces and also in certain licensed premises. No other product other than cigarettes kill half their users, and illegal cigarettes are particularly easy for children to get hold of. What is really encouraging, is that there is now a concerted effort by all the enforcement authorities such as HMRC and Trading Standards to tackle illegal tobacco.”
The Response to the Campaign in Newcastle
Smoke Free Newcastle agreed a local implementation programme for the campaign which included:
- Wide distribution of resource materials to Local Authority, NHS and community premises to increase public awareness of the key messages. This included the distribution of campaign packs to libraries, customer care centres, GP surgeries and health centres.
- Briefings to key staff groups to engage key influencers in the campaign such as Councillors, law enforcers and Youth Offending Teams.
- Increasing the profile of the campaign through its inclusion on local NHS and local authority websites, newsletters and publicity.
- Presentations to Smoke Free Newcastle and the Stop Smoking Service.
- Increased enforcement activity as described below.
Enforcement Activity
1. Pack Scanning: Officers visited some 177 retail premises across the city selling cigarettes, checking 3,500 packs of 20 cigarettes (70,000 individual cigarettes) using a hand held scanner provided by HMRC. Positively, none of the packs of cigarettes scanned were found to be illicit products. The opportunity was used during the visits to check all other tobacco enforcement related issues such as advertising and display of statutory warning notices. All retailers visited were provided with campaign advice packs, containing posters and background materials.
As part of a follow-up operations carried out in November and December 2010, officers visited some 30 retail premises across the city selling cigarettes, checking 600 packs of 20 cigarettes (12,000 individual cigarettes) using a hand held scanner provided by HMRC. Positively, none of the packs of cigarettes scanned were found to be ilicit products. The opportunity was used during the visits to check all other tobacco enforcement related issues such as advertising and display of statutory warning notices.
2. Operation Vienetta: 39 mobile vendors including burger vans and ice cream vans were visited by officers. It is pleasing to note that only one mobile vendor was selling cigarettes and these were found not to be illicit. At the end of these retail visits, campaign advice packs containing posters and background material were left with a number of these mobile vendors.
3. Operation Raleigh: Following information received from legitimate traders, it emerged that some food premises, primarily serving the BME communities, were engaged in the supply of ilicit cigarettes and niche tobacco products. Officers worked in full co-operation and with the full assistance of the Specialist Investigation team at HMRC to follow up on the intelligence as received. Some 22 visits to retail premises across the city were conducted in September 2010. In summary the joint operations resulted in the seizure of some 11,326 illict cigarettes, including brands such as "Jin Ling", "Business Royals" and "Kingdom"; 17 packets of "Black Snuff" and 9KG's of niche tobacco products.
A further 17 visits to retail premises across the city were conducted in October 2010. It was pleasing to note that no illicit tobacco products were found during this operation.
Again in December 2010, joint visits with officers from HMRC, were conducted on some 16 retail premises in the city. In two of these premises, a significant number of packets of niche tobacco, were seized.
In January 2011, a number of domestic and retail premises were visited in a joint operation by officers from HMRC and the Trading Standards service.
In April 2011, joint visits with officers from HMRC, were conducted on some 10 retail premises in the city. In one of these premises, some 2000 illict cigarettes were seized. In another premises some 39 packets of hand rolling tobacco, together with various niche tobacco products were also seized.
Again in April 2011, officers conducted an operation on various takeaways in the city centre. In four of these premises, advice was given to the retailers concerned, related to the selling of tobacco products and when all such products where examined, they were all found to be legitimate.
In July 2011, visits were conducted on some 11 retail premises in the city. It was pleasing to report that in all of these premises, the cigarettes found and examined proved to be legitimate products.
4. Niche Tobacco Products: A Business Advice sheet has been developed and distributed to various retail businesses in the city.
The Sale of 'Niche' Tobacco Products
New Warnings over Illegal Tobacco
A new warning about illegal tobacco has highlighted the harm they pose to the health of children and young people.
Criminals are helping recruit a new generation of smokers through mass illegal cigarettes and hand rolled tobacco (HRT) with either no health warnings at all, or written in Russian, Chinese or Arabic.
Much of the tobacco now being seized by local Trading Standards services, Police and HMRC is being made in the Far East purely to be sold on by local tab houses and under the counter operated by irresponsible businesses. But this illicit tobacco lacks the warnings that smoking causes lung cancer, mouth cancer, and a range of other horrific diseases that have helped motivate many smokers to quit.
As the "Get Some Answers" campaign launches across the North East, residents are being urged to phone Crimestoppers in complete anonymity on 0800 555111 if illegal is being sold near them.
Nine out of ten people in the North East think illegal tobacco is a danger as it allows children to smoke, while six out of ten believe it brings crime into communities. And 85% supports efforts to stamp out dealing to children.
The team behind the "Get Some Answers" campaign has brought together Fresh, Police, Trading Standards Officers, HMRC and front line health professionals committed to tackling smoking.
Anyone with information about dealing in illegal tobacco can pass it on completely anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 or at www.crimestoppers-uk.org.
Click here for more detailed information about Jin Ling and illegal tobacco from the former Soviet Bloc http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/tobacco/articles/entry/763/
Core Cities Health Event. Bristol. 12th/13th October 2010
The Core Cities Group is a network of England's major regional cities: Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield. The Group works in partnership to enable each City to enhance their performance in key areas. The Core Cities Health Improvement Collaborative is a two year scheme to tackle the major healt h inequalities facing England's eight biggest regional cities. Senior managers from the Primary Care Trust and local government, work together with a consortium of health and local government specialists to create programmes of work which not only improve practice but which create more effective health improvement strategies.
The Group focuses its activities on key 'topic' areas and tobacco was the most recent issue explored on the 12th/13th October 2010 at an event hosted by Bristol. A representative group from the PCT and the City Council together with colleagues from FRESH attended the event and presented on the work carried out in Newcastle, around the "Get Some Answers" campaign.
Go to the handout prepared for the event in Bristol. Handout
Press Articles
We managed to attract some good publicity for the overall Campaign, with a number of articles been published in the "Evening Chronicle".
Following one of the joint operations carried out on a retail premises in the west of the city, there was an article published in the "Evening Chronicle" of the 23rd July 2010:
Following one of the joint operations carried out on a city centre retail premises, there was an article published in the "Evening Chronicle" of the 4th September 2010:
Following the conviction of a proprietor of a takeaway, caught selling alcohol without a Premises Licence and also illicit cigarettes, there was an article published in the "Evening Chronicle" of the 26th November 2010.
Following one of the joint operations carried out on retail premises in the west of the city, there was an article in the "Evening Chronicle" of the 22nd December 2010:
Following the launch of the new campaign in respect of illicit tobacco campaign, there was an article in the "Evening Chronicle" of the 4th February 2011:
In terms of the important enforcement work conducted by HMRC/UKBA throughout the region, to target those individuals prepared to smuggle cigarettes into the country; an article was published in the "Evening Chronicle" of the 23rd July 2011:
Last Reviewed/Updated: July 2011.