1. Illicit Tobacco
Steve Brimble
Trading Standards Service

2. What is illicit tobacco?
Smuggled/bootlegged: Foreign brands brought into the UK avoiding tax. Includes cheap whites – cigarettes aimed specifically at the illicit market e.g. Jin Ling

3. What is illicit tobacco?
Counterfeit (fake): Cheap/low quality cigarettes packed to look like premium UK brands

4. Is there a problem?
Percentage of large-scale Customs tobacco seizures which proved counterfeit: % % % %

5. Counterfeit Tobacco Cheaper cigarettes = higher consumption
Smoking Reduction:
Cheaper cigarettes = higher consumption
A 10% increase in price leads to a 4% drop in tobacco consumption
Increasing the price through taxation is the most effective lever in helping smokers to quit and has been found to be more effective with poorer and younger smokers.

6. Counterfeit Tobacco Health Issues:
There are no controls over content in counterfeits
Fake cigarettes were found to contain 75% more tar, 28% more nicotine, and 36% more carbon monoxide

7. Illicit Tobacco and Children
Children are more likely to be able to afford cheap cigarettes
TSNW 2009 survey revealed:
Over 20% of year olds in NW stated they smoke
56% purchase cigarettes with non-UK health warnings
28% knowingly purchased fake cigarettes

8. Counterfeit Tobacco Other issues: Poor conditions for workers
Millions lost in taxes
Funds serious organised crime - drugs, people smuggling
An illicit tobacco market allows low-level criminality to gain a foothold in a community
Undercuts honest traders

9. Still unconvinced?
64% of people surveyed said that, if it wasn’t for illicit tobacco, they would not be able to afford to smoke
1 in 20 smokers in professional groups admit to buying smuggled tobacco but among poorer smokers the figure rises to 1 in 5
Illicit tobacco is likely to kill four times more people than smuggled illicit drugs

10. Why an issue?
Illicit tobacco makes it more difficult for people to quit
Illicit tobacco makes it easier for children to start smoking
Children who start smoking are then likely to experience the difficulty of quitting later in life

11. Offences
Trade marks
Duty paid marks
No UK health warnings

12. Where are counterfeits sold?
Street traders
Market stalls
Shop premises
Pubs
Car boot sales
Workplaces
Internet

13. How to Identify Counterfeit Cigarettes
All the ten boxes in a sleeve will bear the same health warnings - on genuine packs they will vary
Circumstances - where are they stored
Price
Taste

14. Ice cream man caught selling illicit tobacco to children
Case Study: Illicit tobacco makes it easier for kids to smoke
Case Study: Exploits the vulnerable
Ice cream man caught selling illicit tobacco to children
Trading Standards uncovered a ‘Tony’s Whippy’ ice cream van selling fake cigarettes and counterfeit DVDs to children in Manchester.
After receiving several complaints from members of the public, Tameside Trading Standards and Greater Manchester Police set up a joint operation to catch the culprit in action.
They stopped the van while out on its rounds in Ashton-under-Lyne. Upon searching the vehicle they found a large quantity of counterfeit cigarettes and DVDs, including popular kids’ titles such as High School Musical.
He was given a 12-month community sentence, ordered to carry out 100 hours’ unpaid work and forced to pay prosecution costs of £604.

15. Schools girls pressured into smuggling trips
Case Study: Illicit tobacco exploits vulnerable young people
Schools girls pressured into smuggling trips
Youngsters in the North East are being recruited to carry out smuggling missions for organised criminal gangs.
Crime bosses behind the operation are preying on vulnerable young girls with the promise of pocket money and an overnight sunshine break in return for trafficking illegal tobacco into the UK.
This worrying trend was highlighted by the recent case of four North East schoolgirls, who were caught smuggling more than 200,000 illegal cigarettes back into the UK – estimated to be worth more than £40,000 in excise duty and VAT alone.

16. Contacts For more information on illicit tobacco:
Crimestoppers
Consumer Direct
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