The council’s Trading Standards team has been cracking down on the illegal tobacco trade, as well as shops selling to underage customers, reports Sebastian Mann, Local Democracy Reporter

Unsafe toys, desk fans and almost 50,000 illicit cigarettes have been seized in Waltham Forest over the past two years.

The council’s Trading Standards team has been cracking down on knife sales, the illegal tobacco trade, and shops selling to underage customers as part of London-wide initiatives.

Investigations by Waltham Forest Trading Standards (WFTS) can lead to shops losing their licences and the owners being prosecuted.

According to a council report published this week, 46,620 illegal cigarettes and 227 packets of hand-rolling tobacco have been seized in the borough since August 2022.

Illegal cigarettes are those that have been smuggled into the country, meaning no duty tax has been paid. They are unregulated and can be harmful, according to police guidance.

The owner of Gospodina, in Walthamstow, was fined more than £5,000 after 574 packs of illegal cigarettes were discovered following a tip-off.

He told Thames Magistrates Court in November 2022 he had sold them because the shop had been struggling post-Brexit.

Over the past twelve months, two shops were also caught attempting to sell unsafe goods in the borough.

Untested toys were seized from one store, left anonymous in the report, and eventually destroyed after they were found to present a “potential choking hazard and chemical contaminant”.

In a separate incident, WFTS were told by the Border Force that untested and “potentially unsafe” desk fans had arrived from China.

The recipient – the owner of a similarly anonymised Leytonstore shop – refused to pay for them to be tested, and the goods were returned to the People’s Republic.

More than 20 shops were caught selling age-restricted items to underage customers over the past two years. A total of 118 shops have been inspected since April 2022, and 21 failed the tests.

The team sends in minors, aged between 14 and 16, to try to buy alcohol, tobacco, fireworkers, aerosols and similar goods.

The Trading Standards team had also attempted to buy knives on four occasions since November 2022, but did not succeed once.

The council says the majority of shops in the borough are compliant with the law, but tests are “regularly carried out”.

It is illegal to sell most knives to anyone under the age of 18. The Metropolitan Police has been focusing on the trade as part of Operation Sceptre, a nationwide campaign to tackle violent knife crime.

The report will be presented to Waltham Forest Council’s communities and public protection scrutiny committee next week.

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