SHOPS in Huddersfield selling counterfeit cigarettes and non-duty paid alcohol have had their licences revoked.

Lano Mini Market, in Swan Lane, Lockwood, and Westgate News, in Westgate, Huddersfield, were targeted by West Yorkshire Police.

Westgate News lost its licence following reports it was selling non-duty and/or counterfeit cigarettes to minors.

In February police carried out a test purchase using children, who were sold single, unpackaged cigarettes, which is illegal.

They were also found to be counterfeit and non-duty paid. Illegal flavoured tobacco was also found on the premises.

A search of the premises in March uncovered various tobacco products, all non-duty paid, which were seized by Trading Standards officers.

In watching the shop for 30 minutes before the search PC Katie Jagger, partnerships officer for Kirklees Division,  said: “I observed a steady stream of youths, some in school uniform, enter the shop and leave approximately one minute later.

“I observed two young people enter the shop who were about 15 years of age.

“They left the shop a minute later and one of them had a lit cigarette in their mouth.”

On executing a search warrant officers found the owner in the shop. No receipts were available and the cigarettes on sale had, he said, been bought from a cash and carry wholesaler.

Three boxes of cellophane “dealer bags”, often used to sell cannabis and cocaine, were also discovered in the shop. The owner was unable to explain why they were on the premises.

PC Jagger said alcohol was not for sale in the shop but that if it was available it was felt that the owner would sell it to underage persons.

Complaints led to a joint operation by police officers and Trading Standards personnel who swooped on Lano Mini Market in March and discovered non-duty paid cigarettes and alcohol hidden on the premises.

An employee serving in the shop was found to be an asylum seeker with no right to work in the UK.

Police seized 41 cases of “super strength foreign labelled alcohol beers” – almost 1,000 tins – as well as 33 packets of non-duty paid cigarettes.

The licence owner was said to have “a blatant disregard” for the law and was using a worker who did not have “a basic grasp of the most simplest of licensing laws or conditions”.

Sitting at Huddersfield Town Hall, councillors on Kirklees Council’s Licensing Panel agreed to revoke licences for both premises.