A Blackburn shop keeper has been banned from running any business for three years and fined after repeatedly selling counterfeit and non-compliant cigarettes from his family’s newsagents.
Yesterday (April 12), Preston Crown Court heard how Aktarali Chopdat, who was running Bastwell Stores on Whalley New Road, after a number of visits from trading standards and police seized more than £10,000 in illegal cigarettes.
Today, he was sentenced by the honorary recorder of Preston, Judge Robert Altham.
Chopdat, of Churchhill Road, Blackburn, was given an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for 20 months.
He has also been fined £2,000.
The company, Bastwell Stores, was fined £1,000.
Chopdat and the company have been ordered to pay £4,000 in costs.
The fines must be paid within 56 days or Chopdat will be jailed for three months.
He must also complete 200 hours of community service and has been disqualified from being a company director for three years.
A deprivation order has also been made for the items seized.
READ MORE: Blackburn shopkeeper sold thousands of pounds worth of fake cigarettes
The court heard how Chopdat was visited by the council’s Trading Standards team in February 2017 where officers found and seized further non-compliant cigarettes and rolling tobacco worth £6,136.50, for which he received a warning.
A year later in March 2018, Bastwell Stores was again visited by the council’s Trading Standards team officers seized £4,381 worth of goods. He was prosecuted and fined £300.
A further search was carried out on March 12, 2020 and even more non-compliant and counterfeit cigarettes were found to be being sold in the shop. Tobacco worth £2,873 was seized and £9,009.32 in cash.
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