TAX UP IN SMOKE

More than £2billion is lost in tax to the illegal tobacco trade each year.

The scale of the problem was highlighted last year in a series of nationwide raids co-ordinated by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute.

Code-named Operation Henry II, it resulted in the seizure of 2.9 million cigarettes and 1,272kg of tobacco worth £919,000.

A total of 409 premises were targeted, mainly small food outlets with alcohol licences, with illegal tobacco found in 172 of them – that’s 42%. More than half of them were previous offenders.