Stub it out: Express & Star investigation finds 25 out of 27 shops selling cheap tobacco

An Express & Star investigation has uncovered just how easy it is to get your hands on illicit and dangerous tobacco for just a fraction of the cost of the real thing.

Secretly-recorded footage shows how 25 shopkeepers needed little prompting to offer the dodgy products with our undercover investigator, simply asking 'have you got any cheap cigs'.

A counterfeit packet of 50g Amber Leaf tobacco was bought for as little as £3, whereas it should cost around £16.60 from legitimate traders. And a pack of 20 cigarettes was bought for just £2.50 when it would cost around £9 for the real thing.

• Over two days our secret shoppers found 14 traders in Wolverhampton and 10 in Walsall selling fake roll-up tobacco and cheap cigarettes smuggled in from overseas.

• The WV1, WV2, WV6, WS1 and WS2 postcodes proved to be the main hotspots for the illegal sales.

• Wolverhampton South West MP Paul Uppal said: “These findings are absolutely shocking. Illegal tobacco sales is something I have looked into and the contents are appalling, including rat droppings and all sorts of chemicals. “All for the sake of saving a bit of money, people are endangering their health and defrauding the Exchequer.”

Out of 27 shops visited, all but two were found to be breaking the law. Our haul included 550g of counterfeit tobacco and 280 illegal and fake cigarettes – all bought for just £70. The value of the real products would be £300.

In one instance, a shoe box was produced from under the counter containing the illegal products.

Our evidence files will be passed on to the Trading Standards departments at Wolverhampton City Council and Walsall Council. We have not identified any of the perpetrators in a bid not to prejudice any prosecutions following our investigation.

The illegal trade in tobacco is estimated to cost the UK taxman around £2 billion in unpaid duty a year. But there is also an enhanced health risk with smoking fake brands.

There is the possibility they have higher levels of dangerous chemicals, with traces of animal droppings, dead insects, asbestos and plastics found in cigarettes on sale in the UK.

These products are manufactured all over the world in unregulated factories that adhere to no health and safety regulations or industry standards of hygiene. They often do not include proper filters and a single cigarette can be as harmful as 10.

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) estimated last year around 10 per cent of manufactured cigarettes and up to 50 per cent of hand rolling tobacco on sale on British shores was now illegal.

And a survey by market testers MS Intelligence found 26.1 per cent of all packs in the West Midlands are either illegal or purchased outside of the UK.

Alan Nesbeth, aged 53, was jailed for five years while 28-year-old Jian Ning Yang was locked up for two-and-a-half years in September last year for their part in the crime.

The racket was smashed by Revenue and Customs investigators who swooped to seize hundreds of thousands of illicit cigarettes and tons of rolling tobacco.

A huge haul, on which £1.6m duty had been evaded, was recovered after the lorry in which it had been concealed among a load of steel wool arrived at the Alligator Self Storage unit in Portway Road, Wednesbury, in May 2013, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

Fifteen months earlier another raid by Customs officials on the Leavesley Containers in Wellington Road, Dudley, had unearthed tobacco and cigarettes on which £131,000 duty had been dodged. That had been smuggled into the country as either freight or in postal packages of 'tea.' Some of the contraband was sent into the country by post in parcels disguised as tea.

Yang, of Linwood Road, Dudley, was a link between the UK and Chinese arms of the operation because he spoke good English, the court heard. Undercover investigators had watched him transferring heavy boxes.

A £38,175 in cash was discovered at his home – £9,000 of which was found in a freezer. Large quantities of tobacco and Amber Leaf pouches along with paperwork for payments to storage and courier firms were also found.

Mark Yexley, media relations manager for JTI, which manufactures Amber Leaf, said: "The impact of the illicit trade in tobacco on society is far-reaching and members of the public, retailers, suppliers and the Government all have a role to play to combat the issue. Criminals who deal in illegal tobacco will sell to all-comers, including children. JTI fully supports any efforts to rid our streets of illegal tobacco and stop criminals infiltrating our communities."

Councillor John Reynolds, city services boss at Wolverhampton City Council, added: "Fake cigarettes put public safety at risk and we have had a number of successful operations to target this illegal trade in Wolverhampton.

"Our trading standards team operate on intelligence they receive and will be very interested to review the information from the Express & Star investigation to see if there is evidence they can act on."

Walsall Council's community chief, councillor Khizar Hussain, said: "The issue of counterfeit and illicit cigarettes and tobacco is an important issue for Walsall Trading Standards, not only because of the health risks associated with smoking but also because the practice significantly undermines legitimate businesses and the health of the local economy in general.

"We regularly carry out intelligence-based activities, and as such we are always happy to receive any information concerning the sale or distribution of illegal products.

"Any information received is evaluated in line with our current protocols with a view to further intervention or investigation, if deemed appropriate. Such information is also shared with other agencies such as HMRC where there are suspicions of duty evasion, VAT or other irregularities.

"We have successfully deployed tobacco detector dogs on a number of occasions over the past 12 months, usually with police support, which has resulted in several major seizures of illegal products in the Walsall borough."