Latest news with #cigarettes
BBC News
10 hours ago
- Business
- BBC News
Sleaford shop owner jailed over illegal tobacco and vapes
A shop owner has been jailed for six months after pleading guilty to selling counterfeit seized thousands of illegal vapes and tobacco in a raid on Karwan Dewari Khatab's store in Sleaford, Fresh Fruit and Grocery shop on Southgate was closed following a court order in 2024, Lincolnshire Trading Standards 43, was also told to pay £11,700 in costs at Lincoln Crown Court on 29 May. Trading standards said more than 5,400 illicit cigarettes and vapes were seized, along with 3.45kg of hand-rolling of the items were hidden in jigsaw of St Giles Road, Derby, committed similar offences at a shop he owned in Cheltenham, trading standards trading standards officer Andy Wright said: "Offending at Mr Khatab's Sleaford store was brazen, with a member of staff caught red-handed attempting to sell an illegal vape to an underage child in front of a police officer."These vapes exceeded the legal puff limit by several thousand and can be a dangerous gateway to a lifetime of nicotine addiction."More offences took place at his Cheltenham shop, where counterfeit cigarettes were sold during all 27 test purchases that were made."Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
Free Malaysia Today
21 hours ago
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
Customs dept seizes contraband cigarettes worth RM1.44mil in Kelantan
Kelantan customs department director Wan Jamal Abdul Salam Wan Long said the cigarettes were worth RM286,234, while the tax duties totalled RM1.16 million. (Customs pic) PETALING JAYA : The Kelantan customs department has seized 1.72 million contraband cigarettes worth RM1.44 million after a raid on a house at Kampung Babong in Kota Bharu. The department's Kelantan director, Wan Jamal Abdul Salam Wan Long, said the raid, carried out on May 7, was conducted by the Kota Bharu enforcement branch's operations team. 'We seized 1.72 million cigarettes of various kinds as well as an MPV. The cigarettes were valued at RM286,234. The tax duties totalled RM1.16 million,' Sinar Harian reported him as saying today. He said the MPV, costing about RM30,000, was used to distribute the cigarettes and the house was most likely rented for the purpose of storing contraband cigarettes before their distribution. The case is being investigated under sections 135(1)(e) and 135(1)(d) of the Customs Act 1967 for possession and distribution of contraband.
ABC News
3 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Calls for tobacco sales ban at supermarkets
The Lung Foundation of Australia wants to see an outright ban on the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products in major supermarkets, with some health experts saying it should also be extended to convenience stores.
News.com.au
26-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Rocker shocked as cigarette prices soar, fuel underworld war in Australia
When Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee stopped by a Southbank 7-Eleven while touring in Melbourne in 2023, he was shocked by price of a packet of Marlboro Gold. The US musician was not used to paying that much — at $62.99 for 25 cigarettes, the cost was at the time among the highest in the world. He took to Instagram to share his receipt for four packets at $251.96 and left no question about his feelings with an accompanying middle finger emoji. Fast forward two years and the cost keeps going up. A photograph of a price board at a Melbourne store over the weekend caused a stir all over again. 'I snapped this pic in Melbourne yesterday,' wrote Sydney-based tourism director Fiona Dalton on LinkedIn. 'It's clearly been a very long time since I made my last purchase but I kid you not — I had to do a double take.' The board showed the cheapest packet of cigarettes cost $34.50 while others nudged the $100 mark. 'This is the cost PER PACKET of cigarettes from a 7/11 convenience store in the city,' Ms Dalton wrote. 'That's $82.99 for a packet of Benson & Hedges. Although I'm not an advocate for the damages of smoking it's worth considering what's happening as a result of these prices. 'No wonder the 'Tobacco Wars' will be the next Underbelly series. No wonder we have a drug epidemic in Australia. No wonder kids are vaping. No wonder the illegal tobacco trade is increasing. No wonder the underworld are killing each other on the streets of Sydney and Melbourne over deals gone wrong. 'This is insane. Has public policy gone too far?' It's a question that has does the rounds in Australia year after year. Australia's cigarette prices are sky-high because the Federal Government applies a tobacco excise to cigarettes. The tax per cigarette is roughly $1.40. It means a packet of cigarettes in Australia, on average, costs more than $AU40 compared to about $AU13 in the United States. In Europe and Japan, the cost of cigarettes is even lower. The tobacco excise is indexed every March and September in line with average weekly ordinary-time earnings. The thinking behind the policy is that higher costs will deter smoking. It's in the interests of public health and aims to keep smokers out of hospital beds. But it also earns the government massive revenue, though that is falling as Aussies turn to the illicit tobacco market. Fei Gao, a Lecturer in Taxation from the University of Sydney and Andrew Terry, a Professor of Business Regulation from the University of Sydney, wrote recently about why the public policy has created a 'diabolical problem for the government'. 'This financial year, the government expects to earn revenue from the tobacco excise of A$7.4 billion. That's down sharply from $12.6 billion in 2022–23, and an earlier peak of $16.3 billion in 2019–20,' they wrote. 'The government expects this downward trend to continue. Australia's heavy tobacco taxation has driven many consumers towards illicit cigarettes. 'But this is more than just a problem for government coffers accustomed to revenue from the tobacco tax. 'It presents a major challenge for a public health policy that has long relied on increasing tobacco excise duty as its primary tool to reduce smoking. 'If government revenue from tobacco is falling, it isn't because we aren't trying to tax it.' They wrote that 'while legal cigarette prices are prohibitively high for some, illegal alternatives are widely available and significantly cheaper. That's because these unregulated products bypass excise and GST entirely'. 'The estimated value of illicit tobacco entering the Australian market has soared, from $980 million in 2016–17 to more than $6 billion in 2022–23. Of this $6 billion, almost $3 billion entered the market undetected.' The impact is being seen on the streets of Melbourne and Sydney where organised crime syndicates have been burning down rival businesses in what's dubbed the 'big tobacco wars'. Hundreds of shops have been burned down in the last few years. On LinkedIn, many joined the debate about exactly what to do. 'When you can pick up a pack for $15 with the same chemicals,' one person wrote. 'Meanwhile in Spain, I took this photo (of) the Marlboro box. Some were €4.65,' wrote another. Latest estimates by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare suggests 1.8 million Australians smoke daily. A poll of more than 9000 readers carried out last year showed 66 per cent of respondents thought cigarette prices were too high in Australia. Author and economist Jason Murphy summed it up well. 'What we see now in Australia is that a pack of smokes is so expensive that normal people are willing to buy black market cigarettes. And organised crime is willing to supply. 'When a pack costs $12 at the shops, there's not much profit in undercutting the supermarket giants. But when a pack costs $50 at the shops, well. 'Remember that tobacco and paper are very, very cheap to make, transport and sell. They store easily and don't need to be refrigerated or kept food-safe. Anyone who has ever bought cigarettes in Asia knows the fair price of the actual product can be very low. 'So if you can buy a pack of cigarettes for 30 cents wholesale out of Asia and sell it under the counter illegally in Australia for $20, the profits are huge. 'Hence all the firebombing.'
Telegraph
25-05-2025
- General
- Telegraph
‘Disgusting' bollards painted to look like cigarettes
An anonymous graffiti artist has divided opinion in a Wiltshire town by painting three bollards to look like giant cigarettes. While some residents have dubbed the art project 'disgusting', others say the results of the 'fun little joke' should be allowed to stay. Swindon's Hythe Road now features three posts that have been painted white with a black base and orange top, designed to resemble a burning stub and filter. Some have called it a 'brilliant idea' and thanked the anonymous artist for 'making the area look a bit better'. Meanwhile, Swindon Borough Council criticised the graffiti artist for failing to align with its public health policies. One person said: 'I probably would've preferred it not to be cigarettes if given the choice, but honestly it looks much better than it did when they were just bollards, so I'm all in favour of it.' Another added: 'I hope they're allowed to stay as they are, it's a fun little joke and it isn't harming anyone. 'I would love to see more stuff like this happen all over town and hope that artists who want to use their time and resources are encouraged to do things like this.' A third person said the bollards are 'very funny, to be honest' and that they hoped they would not be removed. But other local residents reacted angrily to the street art, with one dubbing it 'disgusting.' Another called the painted bollards 'pathetic', asking: 'Whose stupid idea was this?' Some have encouraged the person behind the transformation to keep their identity hidden. A council spokesperson said: 'We love street art in Swindon and this is certainly a very unusual choice of design. 'We don't want to stub out the flame of this artist's creativity, but the artwork obviously doesn't align with the efforts of our public health team to get people to quit smoking.'
