Illegal cigarette shop owner’s payback is lost in translation
ABID to get a Macclesfield shop owner who ran an illegal cigarette business to pay back his ill-gotten gains has been delayed - because he needs a translator.
Nadaz Ahmed, 39, was caught selling counterfeit tobacco that was hidden behind a false panel at his Yum Yum store, on Churchgate, and given a suspended jail sentence in April.
He gave trading standards a false name and claimed he was just an employee having his first day at work. But a subsequent visit found he was
actually the owner.
A proceeds of crime act at Chester Crown Court on Wednesday, September 4, was due to hear how much Ahmed should pay back of the money he made.
But it was adjourned for two months to enable a Kurdish translator to be found for him.
The sentencing hearing, at the same court, had heard Ahmed had two bank accounts.
In one £17,600 of cash had been deposited and there were £23, 972 of credits which could not be accounted for. Another account had £7,110 deposited.
The court was told Ahmed had run the fraudulent business, selling counterfeit cigarettes for £3 or £4 a packet, from April 2017 to July 2018.
Prosecutor Rachel Cooper told the sentence hearing: “The shop was sparsely stocked with sweets, crisps and chocolate, most of which was out of date.
“In June 2018 the unusual measure of sending tobacco detection dogs was used.
“The dogs went to a false panel behind a kitchen cupboard and found a hidden area. The panel was flush to the wall and slid upwards.
“The cupboard had been searched before and was always empty.”
Inside officers found 198 packets of counterfeit cigarettes and eight pouches of rolling tobacco.
During interviews under caution Ahmed said he sold the cigarettes and the money went ‘into his pocket’ and not through the business.
Ahmed, of no fixed address, had earlier pleaded guilty to a count of running a fraudulent business, 12 counts of possessing cigarettes with a false trade mark and four counts of possessing cigarettes without the proper health warnings.
He had two previous convictions for 11 offences, all for selling counterfeit cigarettes.
In sentencing him to eight months prison, suspended for two years and 200 hours unpaid work, Judge Steven Everett branded Ahmed ‘greedy and dishonest’ and said he’d had ‘umpteen warnings’ to change his ways.
The proceeds of crime hearing will now take place on November 8.