A DUKINFIELD shop owner has been ordered to carry out 90 hours of unpaid work after admitting possessing counterfeit cigarettes and non-compliant vapes for supply.
Ali Yelmaz Azadin was also ordered to pay more than £1,900 following a prosecution brought after Tameside Council trading standards officers seized hundreds of illegal tobacco products and e-cigarettes from a shop on King Street.
Tameside Magistrates’ Court heard officers first visited Nisa Local, at 169 King Street, on March 22, 2023. They seized 129 non-compliant e-cigarettes during the visit.
Trading standards officers returned to the shop on April 26, 2023, when they discovered a concealed hiding place containing 251 packets of illegal cigarettes and a further 10 non-compliant e-cigarettes.
Azadin, of Church Street, Dukinfield, was the licence holder and company director for the businesses at the time of the seizures.
He pleaded guilty at Tameside Magistrates’ Court on September 21, 2026, to three offences relating to the sale of non-compliant e-cigarettes and counterfeit cigarettes.
The 46-year-old was sentenced to a 12-month community order, including 90 hours of unpaid work.
He was also ordered to pay a £114 victim surcharge and £1,800 towards prosecution costs.
The cigarettes and e-cigarettes seized during the investigation have been forfeited and will be destroyed.
Councillor Laura Boyle, Tameside Council Executive Member for Environmental Services and Neighbourhoods, said: “The sale of illicit cigarettes and vapes is not a victimless crime. It is often linked to wider criminal activity and organised crime rings, it makes tobacco more accessible to children and young people and it can have wider damaging impacts on local neighbourhoods and businesses.
“This is a good result from court. We will continue to take robust enforcement action against those who profit from this illegal trade.”