About £1,500 worth of suspected fake tobacco has been seized in Perth and Kinross after a specially trained dog visited several shops.
Boo, Scotland’s consumer protection tobacco-detecting dog, made a visit to six premises in the region where intelligence suggested duty-evading cigarettes were being sold.
The work was the result of a joint operation between Perth and Kinross Council’s trading standards team, Police Scotland and HMRC.
Of the six premises visited, only one was found to have suspected illicit or counterfeit tobacco items for sale.
The products that were seized had a retail value of around £1,500, which officials say equates to a loss of about £950 in tobacco revenue for the UK Treasury.
Counterfeit tobacco is thought to cost the UK about £2 billion annually, and also presents a risk to public health.
Councillor Tom McEwan, housing and social wellbeing convener, says the authorities in Perth and Kinross have “zero tolerance of counterfeit or illicit products”.
Health warning
He added: “We don’t know where these counterfeit products originated from and while they may have seemed like a bargain for potential customers, they are unlikely to have been produced in line with the required quality controls and so may contain extremely harmful substances.”
Anyone with information about the illegal sale of tobacco is encouraged to report it online or call the Fraud Hotline on 0800 788 887.
