More than 1,000 complaints about Covid regulations

Since March last year, Sandwell Council officials have ordered seven companies to close, issued four directives requiring businesses to shut or comply with the law and handed out fines totalling £4,000.

The list of violations comes in a report on trading standards officers who enforce Covid breaches and the criminal law.

In the most recent case, a Sandwell carpet and furniture shop owner was issued with three fixed penalty notices totalling £4,000 for failing to comply with a closure notice. NCF Carpets, Cape Hill, Smethwick, was fined after ignoring an order issued in January. In early February, police and trading Standards officers again witnessed customers in the carpet shop.

Councillor Maria Crompton, Sandwell Council’s deputy leader, criticised the business saying most firms and residents were complying with the rules.

She said: “We are doing all we can to support businesses across Sandwell, to help them operate legally and to provide financial support if they need to close due to the pandemic.

“But our primary concern has always been the safety of staff, customers and residents. We will continue to come down hard on businesses who breach the rules and show a clear lack of concern for the safety and wellbeing of their community.”

In a report to the council’s safer neighbourhoods and active communities scrutiny board, officers warn fraudsters are using the pandemic to line their own pockets, saying: “There has been an increase in Covid-19 related scams, which include vaccines scams, PPE scams and an increase in cold call offers.”

In addition to coronavirus rules, trading standards also enforce the criminal law.

In a major operation they seized 12,180 packets of cigarettes from a storage unit in Smethwick while police found £184,000 in cash which they are asking a court to confiscate.

Councillors will discuss the report at a meeting on February 25.