A South Gloucestershire convenience store owner has been sent to prison for two months and ordered to pay a combined total of £4,555.71 in fines and costs for selling illegal disposable e-cigarettes to customers.
Jyar Limited and its sole director, Tahsin Jasem, 40, of Warmley appeared at Bristol Magistrates’ Court on Monday 9 December for sentencing, having previously pleaded guilty (on 13 May 2024) to being in possession of 518 illegal e-cigarette devices for supply to consumers.
Jasem was sentenced to two months imprisonment, ordered to pay costs totaling £3109.71 and required to pay a £154 victim surcharge. His company, Jyar Limited received a £923 fine and was required to pay a £369 victim surcharge.
The court heard that Jasem operates a convenience store trading as International Store in Kingswood. South Gloucestershire Council’s Trading Standards team received a complaint in April 2023 that the store was selling illegal disposable e-cigarettes. When Trading Standards officers visited the premises in May 2023, they found devices labelled as containing up to eight times the 2 ml legal limit of nicotine e-liquid and a declared strength two and a half times the 20 mg/ml (2%) legal limit. A large quantity of illegal e-cigarettes were found concealed below the floorboards. The products were seized and a prosecution case progressed.
Councillor Sean Rhodes, cabinet member responsible for the Trading Standards service at South Gloucestershire Council, said: “The council’s Trading Standards officers have been undertaking checks to ensure only legally compliant e-cigarettes that have undergone the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) submission and notification process are supplied to customers. During the last three years we have seized over 9,500 illegal disposable e-cigarette devices with a retail value of over £76,000.
“Although vaping is considered far safer than smoking traditional tobacco products, inhaling nicotine through a device is not risk free. Legislation is in place to regulate products that are placed on the market. Most retailers only sell e-cigarette products that comply with law, however we will not hesitate to prosecute retailers who choose to put profit before compliance.”
Anyone who suspects they may have been sold, or is aware of a business supplying non-compliant disposable e-cigarettes are urged to report it to Trading Standards via the Citizens Advice Consumer Service www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/ or on 0808 223 1133, or by reporting it anonymously to Trading Standards South West at www.tssw.org.uk/work-areas/report-it/
