Foreign fags cost shopkeeper big bucks

Thursday December 3, 2009

A shopkeeper in Fulham has been fined £1,000 for selling illegal cigarettes and tobacco.

Balvinder Malhotra, owner of Best Quality Food and Wine on Lillie Road, pleaded guilty to supplying tobacco without the correct safety warnings in West London Magistrates Court on November 24.

The court heard that on March 25 this year, a trading standards officer from Hammersmith & Fulham Council visited the shop and, during a routine inspection, found 89 packets of ‘foreign’ hand rolling tobacco and cigarettes hidden behind the counter. The duty had not been paid on the products and they did not carry the correct safety warnings.

Malhotra was ordered by District Judge Justin Phillips to pay costs of £1,435 to the council and a £15 victim surcharge, bringing the full sum to £2,450.