The council has closed down a shop in the town centre for illegal sales of tobacco and vapes – 18 months after a member of the public raised the alarm over counterfeit goods.
Stopped shop: the tobacco and vapes shop had counterfeit goods hidden away
Stop and Shop at 79 Church Street was reported to the council in November 2023, after a resident buying a packet of cigarettes suspected that they were counterfeit.
The trading standards team at the cash-strapped council undertook a number of test purchases and raids, each time seizing sizeable quantities of illicit goods. “The business failed to take measures to operate within the law and was deemed to be intentionally selling illegal products,” the council said.
The raids, including with search dogs, found that the shop housed numerous purpose-built hidden compartments, which were found to contain hundreds of illegal tobacco products.
The council used a closure order to shut down the business and adjoining flat for three months. According to the council, this is the first closure order of that type that it has undertaken for “illicit tobacco, vapes and associated criminality”.
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The man behind Stop and Shop Croydon Ltd is a Mr Dlera Jaff. The company was legally dissolved on Christmas Eve just gone, less than 16 months after it was founded, and nearly 4 months before Perry’s self-congratulatory press release.
No accounts were ever filed.
Mr Jaff was also behind Pink Lady Vape Shop Limited in Cwmbran. That company was dissolved last August, 14 months after incorporation, again without filing accounts. The winding up was probably because Torfaen County Borough Council shut the shop down for three months because it was illegally selling vapes to children and selling vapes which did not comply with product standards.
Earlier this month the National Crime Agency co-ordinated action by police, HMRC, immigration inspectors and Trading Standards officers against “cash-intensive business” across the North West as part of Operation Machinize (sic).
265 premises were “visited”, bank accounts totalling more than £1m were frozen, 35 people were arrested, 97 slaves were rescued, £40,000 cash was seized, along with 200,000 cigarettes, 7,000 packs of tobacco, 8,000 illegal vapes, two vehicles and two cannabis farms; 10 shops were shut.
Mr Jaff’s next venture, established two days before he dissolved Stop and Shop Croydon Ltd, is Local Grocery Ltd, with premises in a mini-market in Halifax. One to watch
Perhaps the council should start quadrupling business rates on these types of shops including barbers, vape shops , phone shops, luggage shops etc. Because rn those established legitimate business Croydon once had have all gone and been run over by total crap on the high street. Church Street has become like West Croydon unfortunately. Same applies to old Waitrose site in East Croydon