A former shop manager has been sentenced for an illegal cigarettes scam that saw a stash of contraband tobacco discovered hidden in the wall of her store.

Daria Wojciechowska was in charge of Euro Market in Queen’s Road, Halifax, when trading standards officials repeatedly made test purchases of illegal products, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

She pleaded guilty on the day of her trial back in September 2019 to trademark offences and to participating in a fraudulent business, between November, 2017, and June, 2018.

Wojciechowska, 28, of Pellon Lane, Halifax, was sentenced to a community order with 150 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £700 towards the cost of the West Yorkshire Trading Standards investigation.

The court heard that over the seven-month period trading standards officers were able to buy cigarettes and rolling tobacco from the shop with no health warnings on the packaging.

When the premises was inspected, a large amount of illegal cigarettes and tobacco were found hidden in the wall.

A further stash was discovered at a house in nearby Boston Street although Wojciechow-ska was not sentenced in connection with that.

The director of the company that ran the business had been acquitted of any wrongdo-ing at trial, the court was told.

In all, the illegal products had lost HM Revenue & Customs £2,621 in duty. The costs incurred by the investigation totalled £12,000.

In mitigation, it was stated that Wojciechowska was now working full time as a warehouse operative. She had committed no offences before or since.

Judge Andrew Hatton said it was likely that the illegal cigarettes and tobacco were lo-cated in other countries and imported to the UK to be sold on cheaply.

He said it was persistent offending and Wojciechowska well knew what was going on.

But he accepted her basis of plea that she did not import the goods or benefit from the criminality except by being paid to manage the shop.

He also pointed out the big gap in time since the offences were committed.