Landlords who continue to allow their shops to be used by people convicted of offences related to selling illegal cigarettes or vapes are being told they risk being charged with money laundering.
Mark Keal, head of Lincolnshire Trading Standards, says that the message had been pushed more in recent months and claimed it is getting through after a spate of recent shop closures.
A number of three month temporary closure orders have been brought against Spalding premises in the last 12 months.
In total for Lincolnshire between April 2023 and March 2024, 32 closure orders were issued, a meeting of Lincolnshire County Council’s Public Protection and Communities Scrutiny Panel was told.
Of those, five premises received second orders and four received three.
When asked about repeat offenders, Mr Keal said: “It’s disappointing we’re seeing the same premises being used, but they’re not always the same business.
“It, generally speaking, is the same landlords.
“One of the things we’ve done on the back of the closure orders is, when we write to landlords now, we emphasise the point these premises have been closed following a court decision that these businesses were trading illegally.
“We’re highlighting the fact that, if people are taking payments from people operating those illegal businesses, that could be considered a money laundering offence.
“It has had some resonance with landlords.
“For the first six months of this year we’ve had 11 evictions working with landlords. Some of those landlords are not allowing the shops back in.
“They’re now re-purposing those into other types of business. The message is starting to get through with landlords and it is something we’ll continue to target.”
He added: “The 32 closure orders is a good start and we’re continuing that this year.”
The meeting was told Trading Standards had seized 6,534 illegal packs of 20 cigarettes and 4,705 of 50g tobacco from 54 visits to 27 premises in the 12 month period the report covers.
“Some incidences are reported to us by parents, schools and local policing teams,” Mr Keal said. “But we also have a programme of inspection where we have a team of underage volunteers who go in and attempt to buy them,
“We probably carry out about 60 inspections a year based on those.”
