Fresh urges parents to help keep illegal tobacco off North East streets this summer
Parents are being urged to help keep illegal tobacco off the streets of the North East this summer, with unscrupulous dealers likely to be looking for teenage customers over the school holidays.
Mums and dads who know where illegal cigarettes and tobacco are being sold in local tab houses and other locations can call Crimestoppers in complete anonymity.
The appeal for information comes from Fresh and South Tyneside Council following work to successfully reduce the size of the illegal tobacco market in the North East since 2009.
Ailsa Rutter, Director of Fresh, said: “During the school holidays, children will be out and about with friends and we need to ensure illegal tobacco sellers aren’t able to turn this into a business opportunity.
“There’s also likely to be more duty free tobacco in circulation and we need to ensure children don’t end up as the customers. All smoking kills but illegal tobacco is an easy source of tobacco to get children hooked on an addiction that kills half of all smokers. We need continued pressure on the sellers to stop them getting kids hooked and destroying people’s health.”
In 2009 Fresh helped set up the North of England Tackling Illicit Tobacco for Better Health programme covering the North East and North West, working with every local authority, HMRC, police, trading standards and the NHS. The programme has run campaigns like Keep It Out and Get Some Answers and aims to reduce the demand and supply of illegal tobacco.
Despite claims by the tobacco industry, the independent North East Illicit Tobacco Survey in 2013 shows the illegal tobacco market has decreased in recent years, with:
• The illegal tobacco market making up 9 per cent of the overall tobacco market in the North East, compared to 13 per cent in 2011 and 15 per cent in 2009
• One in six smokers (17 per cent) buying illegal tobacco – down from one in four (24 per cent) smokers in 2009.
• The total volume of illegal tobacco bought is down 27 per cent on 2011 which was in turn down 41 per cent on 2009. That means 192 million fewer cigarettes and hand rolled a year worth around £56m in duty.
Richard Ferry, of the North East Trading Standards Association, said: “Trading standards has played a key role in helping take more illegal tobacco off the streets and reduce a source for young people to smoke.”
Trading standards reports that many of the illegal cigarettes being seized in the North East are brands from the Far East, mass manufactured in factories in the Balkans purely for the illegal market.
Anyone who knows where illegal tobacco is being sold can pass on information in complete anonymity by calling Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or click on crimestoppers-uk.org
For more information about illegal tobacco click on keep-it-out.co.uk