Closure orders have once again been placed on four Spalding shops.
All were the subject to three-month closure orders due to ‘nuisance and disorder’ for the second time this year.
Spalding European Food Store and Warsaw on Winsover Road were before Lincoln Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, May 8.
The following day orders for Baltic, also on Winsover Road, and UK Maramures Express Limited on Commercial Road were at the same court.
Three-month temporary closure orders were initially placed on them in February due to the sale of illegal cigarettes and vapes.
Those closure orders were due to expire this month.
The Voice asked both Lincolnshire Police and Trading Standards as to why the closure orders have been put in place again but have not received a response.
As previously reported, Ganjo Omer, of Spring Gardens, appeared at Boston Magistrates’ Court earlier this month on the charges regarding the Baltic Shop on Winsover Road from December 12, 2023.
Omer pleaded guilty to having criminal property amounting to 8,000 cigarettes, 2,300 hand roll tobaccos and 89 illegal vapes.
He also admitted four counts of selling a total of 132 counterfeit cigarettes and two counts of selling a total of 41 counterfeit packets of tobacco.
Another charge he admitted related to selling vapes that exceeded the legal limit of volume of two millilitres.
Five other charges which he’d pleaded not guilty to were dismissed as no evidence was offered.
Omer was fined £108, ordered to pay £349 costs and a £43 victim surcharge.
* South Holland Police this week announced it had found a quantity of suspected illegal vapes and counterfeit tobacco following a search in Crowland.
A spokesman for the police said: “Following an intelligence lead stop search in the Crowland area, police have seized a quantity of suspected illegal vapes and counterfeit tobacco.
“These will be passed on to Trading Standards for further investigation.”
Reports of suspicious activity can be reported to the police via 101 or anonymously via www.crimestoppers-org.uk
- Update – After going to press Lincolnshire Police posted on their website that officers had found additional that ‘illegal and illicit goods’ had been sold at the premises.
A large amount of cigarettes, enough to fill ten large clear bin bags, was recovered from Baltic on Winsover Road, Spalding.
A spokesman said: “Three men were observed carrying boxes and bags out of the back of the store to an abandoned car parked behind the premises.
“One of the men were detained, two other men made off, one of whom jumped over a fence and tried to hide a large bag of contraband, but this was later recovered by officers.
“A significant amount of vapes and cigarettes was later recovered from the abandoned vehicle and shop also.
The case has now been handed over to Lincolnshire Trading Standards to investigate as they are agency with primacy to deal with illegal trading in the county.”
Insp for South Holland, Matt Dickinson said: “This was an excellent example of how our teams are collaborating effectively behind the scenes day in, day out, to collate the vital evidence required to provide to our Trading Standards colleagues with the evidence they need to be able to bring these cases to before the courts.
“We are determined to do everything in our power to facilitate their arduous task however we can.”
