A SHOP owner who kept counterfeit cigarettes and failed to put up tobacco warning signs was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay costs by magistrates.

Faud Aziz, 38, pleaded guilty at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates' Court yesterday to eight trading standards offences in relation to Zaks, in Leeds Road, Bradford.

Harjit Ryatt, prosecuting for Bradford Council, said the defendant, of Leeds Road, Bradford, faced charges under different legislation, but the thrust of the offending related to the absence of signing on the premises.

There were no signs warning that tobacco products could not be supplied to under-18s, or health warnings on some packets of cigarettes.

Aziz had also infringed the law by openly displaying tobacco products, and had also breached the Tradesmark Act relating to counterfeit goods.

Ordering Aziz to pay £1,200 prosecution costs and sentencing him to a 12-month conditional discharge, chairman Beryl Eakin said: "You have been in this country since 2002. You needed to be aware of the law when you went into business."