COUNTERFEIT criminals using Facebook in Swansea to sell their often-harmful products are being caught and taken to court by the Council.
In the latest case Trading Standards officers in collaboration with South Wales Police acted against a local man who was making hundreds of pounds out of local residents by advertising counterfeit tobacco from a site on Facebook.
Carl Mayo of Bennett Street, Landore, pleaded guilty to selling counterfeit tobacco outside his home following a test purchase by a trading standards officer.
He appeared before Swansea Magistrates on July 14 and pleaded guilty to five offences under the Tobacco Products (Manufacture, Presentation and sale) (Safety) Regulations 2002 for supplying tobacco with no health warnings and a further five offences for selling, possessing and exposing for sale counterfeit tobacco contrary to the Trade Marks Act 1994.
The magistrates gave him a community order for 12 months with a 20 day Rehabilitation Activity Requirement. The defendant was also fined £180 and ordered to pay costs of £1205 and victim surcharge of £60.
The case was the sixth occasion in the last three months that prosecutions have been brought by Swansea Council against people using Facebook to sell goods or services unlawfully.
Mark Child, Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Healthy City, said the latest prosecution was particularly worrying because counterfeit tobacco can be full of cancer-causing chemicals at levels much higher than those found in legitimate tobacco sold in shops.
He said: “Counterfeit tobacco will typically not carry the government health warnings which cigarette and tobacco packs sold legitimately are obliged to show. But, even worse, is the fact that illicit tobacco is full of extremely harmful chemicals which haven’t been filtered out as they would be by genuine manufacturers.
“Our advice to smokers is that they should give up the habit for the sake of their own health and for their families. But if they must smoke then the worst of all worlds is to put their health at immediate as well as long-term risk by purchasing counterfeit tobacco.”
Trading Standards officers in Swansea caught Mayo as part of their routine monitoring of social media sites offering goods and services for sale in the city. When they raided his home they found 88 packs of fake Amber Leaf rolling tobacco and 15 packs of counterfeit Golden Virginia.
Under caution Mayo said he had been selling the tobacco for two or three weeks and believed he’d sold between 300 and 400 packs in that time.
In the past three months six cases originating from adverts on Facebook have been brought to court, securing convictions of people selling fake designer-wear, fireworks, tobacco and unregistered financial services.
Cllr Child said: “Many, many adverts on Facebook are entirely legitimate. But there are also those criminals and fraudsters who will use social media as a means to sell dodgy or stolen goods as well as take advantage of the unwary.
“The advice of our trading standards officers is that if an offer seems too good to be true then it almost certainly is. If you’re in doubt, you can always check with us.”
For more information about Trading Standards go to http://www.swansea.gov.uk/tradingstandards
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