Hinckley shop closed after it repeatedly sold illegal cigarettes

Easy Shop in Regent Street has been closed down for three months.

A shop in Hinckley which sold illegal cigarettes to undercover Trading Standards officers on eight occasions and had more than 1,800 packets of illegal tobacco seized during four enforcement visits has been closed down for three months.

Easy Shop in Regent Street must close until the 15th of April.

Gary Connors, head of Leicestershire Trading Standards, said: "Our Trading Standards officers are actively tackling the trade in illegal cigarettes, which help to fund criminality.

We will continue to work in partnership with Leicestershire Police to use all means at our disposal to disrupt those who seek to put our local community at a public health risk. The business will close for three months, and thereafter will be monitored if the premises reopen for business.

Selling cheap or illicit cigarettes steals trade from our legitimate retailers who lose trade to rogue shopkeepers.   All smoking is dangerous, but smoking illegal tobacco could potentially be even more harmful to health because the trade in counterfeit and illicit tobacco is unregulated, so there is no control over what is mixed with the tobacco.

We will continue to clamp down on the sale of illicit cigarettes and vapes, as well as underage sales, to protect Leicestershire residents from traders who break the law. 

We really appreciate members of the public reporting suspicions of illicit or cheap vapes and tobacco sales."

The closure application was made after Trading Standards officers and police seized illegal tobacco from the business on four separate occasions between June 2022 and October 2024.

Trading Standards officers conducted a first test purchase at the shop in June 2022, following reports of illegal tobacco being sold from the premises. On that occasion, the officer was sold a packet of counterfeit Richmond cigarettes. Another test purchase in the following month also led to the sale of an illegal packet of cigarettes.

The final test purchase was carried out on 8 January 2025, when two packets of illegal tobacco were sold.

Magistrates granted the closure order under Section 80 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, which prevents anyone from entering the address. Anyone who breaches it is liable to be prosecuted.

Large posters explaining that the business has been closed down due to illegal activity on the premises have been posted on the shop’s windows by Trading Standards officers.