Stores closures fear on ciggies

One in five newsagents in the West Midlands are facing closure because people are buying illegal fake cigarettes, it is claimed.

Independent retailers consider smuggled and counterfeit tobacco a bigger threat to business than large supermarkets selling cigarettes at lower prices.

Around 21 per cent of retailers questioned in a survey of Midlands newsagents reported that counterfeit cigarettes were causing serious slumps in their profits meaning they feared for the future of their businesses.

Retailers are calling for tougher sentences for those who sell illegal tobacco. Members of Retailers Against Smuggling, who campaign against the illegal tob- acco trade, want extra customs officers at ports and airports to combat the problem.

They also think that reducing or freezing tax on tobacco would ease the problem - as it would cut smugglers' high profit margins.

Rajendra Patel, who has run R S News on Wolverhampton Street in Willenhall for 15 years, said it is getting harder to make ends meet.

The 49-year-old said: "Sales have fallen dramatically. We are down 30 per cent on a major source of income. As well as the smuggling, people are going abroad and buying tobacco, sometimes up to six months supply at a time."

People who bring cigarettes into the country without paying UK duty and then sell the cigarettes face a seven-year jail term and an unlimited fine.

Smuggled and counterfeit tobacco products also cause the Treasury to lose £2.6 billion each year in lost taxes, more than £7 million each day, which could be spent on schools, hospitals and other public services.

By Daniel Wainwright