Guilty of a string of offences relating to the illegal sale of tobacco

A company director, Ali Adalrawish, 29, living in Cathedral Road in Cardiff was found guilty yesterday at Cardiff Magistrates' Court of 11 offences relating to the illegal trade of tobacco and cigarettes at his shop in Clifton Street.

Mr Adalrawish had already pleaded guilty on behalf of the company Best European Foods Limited to all 11 offences at a previous hearing on September 7th2018.

The sentence was deferred until after the trial yesterday, as he pleaded not guilty to the same offences as the director of his shop - Best European Food Limited.

The offences came to light, when trading standards officers raided Best European Foods on Clifton Street in July 2017 with specially trained sniffer dogs. Seven bags, including a suitcase and a holdall were found at the back of the shop containing over 30,000 cigarettes and 6.3 kilos of tobacco, with a street value of between £3,500 and £7,000.

The cigarettes and tobacco were either counterfeit or had no duty paid and did not bear the health warnings required by law. The illegal goods were seized and Cardiff Council began the legal prosecution.

In March 2018, trading standards officers visited the shop again to find a further 120 packs of illegal cigarettes and 49 pouches of tobacco being sold behind the counter. All of the illegal products were confiscated.

Mr Adalrawish claimed that on the first raid, he was the manager of the company and not the director. On the second occasion he acknowledged that he was the director but wasn't at the shop when the raid took place, so believed that the responsibility should lie with the manager that he employed.

At the trial yesterday, Clive Pursey, representing Cardiff Council argued that Mr Adalrawish's not guilty plea, as the director, was due to the fact that he intended to apply for British Citizenship, as he is a Jordanian citizen and that any criminal conviction could jeopardise his application.

Following the guilty verdict yesterday Mr Adalrawish was given a 12 month community order with 120 hours of community service; fined £750; ordered to pay costs of £650; with a victim surcharge of £85.

The company was fined a total of £1000, ordered to pay costs of £100 and a victim surcharge of £100. All of the cigarettes and tobacco was ordered to be destroyed.

Cllr Michael Michael, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Shared Regulatory Services, said: "As everyone knows, smoking is very bad for you, but counterfeit tobacco and cigarettes are completely unregulated and no one actually knows what is in them.

"This case is an excellent example of our trading standards officers acting on intelligence to take illegal goods off the market. The sniffer dogs are specially trained to find both cigarettes and tobacco, so our message to those that are selling these goods, is that there is no way that they can hide them.

"Whether they try to hide them in cavity walls, behind mirrors or pictures, the dogs will find them. Our operations will continue and we will take every case to court and will prosecute."