Barzan Aubid, director of Baltic Bognor Ltd in Bognor, pleaded guilty to trademarks, tobacco labelling and money laundering offences.
On January 16 at Portsmouth Crown Court, Aubid received a ten-month suspended prison sentence, was ordered to complete 65 hours of unpaid work, and must pay £5,000 in costs.
His company, Baltic Bognor Ltd, was fined £14,000 and ordered to pay a £2,000 victim surcharge.
Aubid was found to have a criminal lifestyle, with him and his company benefitting from criminal conduct to the sum of almost £75,000.
Confiscation orders have also been made for these sums and Aubid has three months to pay them.
An alcohol licence for the store was revoked in 2022 due to ongoing breaches and an appeal lodged by Aubid was dismissed in January 2024 at Worthing Magistrates’ Court.
West Sussex Trading Standards had carried out repeated inspections of the premises since 2017, finding counterfeit cigarettes, illegal vapes and other non-compliant products.
On one occasion, officers found cigarettes hidden inside orange juice cartons in a stock room.
On one occasion, officers found cigarettes hidden in orange juice cartons (Image: West Sussex County Council)
Councillor Duncan Crow, West Sussex County Council cabinet member for community support, fire and rescue, said: “Illegal tobacco is a serious concern to public health, and taking steps to eradicate it from the county forms an important element of our council plan and our priority to keep people safe.
“Counterfeit cigarettes can contain a wide range of hazardous substances and we would discourage anybody from buying any seemingly bargain-priced cheap tobacco.
“This case also demonstrates that our Trading Standards team of accredited financial investigators will ensure action is taken to recover any benefit from this type of criminal conduct.”
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