A PEDDLER of drugs and illicit and counterfeit cigarettes and tobacco has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.
Albert Dawid Nowak was found guilty of the offences following a trial at Teesside Crown Court.
The court heard that the tobacco case related to 5,880 cigarettes and 2,300g worth of hand rolling tobacco, with a retail value of nearly £5,400, which was found during a multi-agency operation involving Middlesbrough Council's Trading Standards team and Cleveland Police, in a vehicle parked near to Parli Butchers on Parliament Road, Middlesbrough on March 29, 2018.
The tobacco was found hidden inside boxes of a paddling pool and other inflatables stored in the rear of the vehicle, a Vauxhall Combi Van.
Surveillance had shown 33-year-old Nowak regularly transporting cigarettes from the vehicle to the shop premises. Storing illicit tobacco in cars and inside other items is an increasingly common ploy of illicit tobacco sellers to try and evade detection, the court was told.
The tobacco products did not display the correct labelling including health warnings and many of them were counterfeit. Others were unsafe in that they did not contain the reduced propensity ignition strips which causes them to extinguish safely, presenting more of a fire risk.
In court Nowak, of Crescent Road, Middlesbrough, tried to claim that the person in the footage wasn't him. However, Trading Standards officers explained to the jury that Mr Nowak was well known to them and therefore easily identified. The jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict.
Nowak was subsequently found to have committed drug trafficking offences, after being found with 26 wraps of cocaine worth £520.
He was sentenced to six months imprisonment for the three illicit tobacco offences and three years consecutively for the drug offences.
Middlesbrough Mayor Andy Preston welcomed the sentencing saying "despite their best efforts the criminals will not win".
He added: "This sentence shows that despite their best efforts the criminals will not win. It sends out a message that Middlesbrough Council will not tolerate organised crime, which is behind illicit tobacco supply lines, in this town.
"We will find you, take your illicit goods and bring you to justice."
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