VILLAGE stores are shutting up shop because more and more customers are buying contraband tobacco.

One retailer says that fewer smokers have been buying cigarettes at her shop - because they can get them for half the price on the black market.

Patsy Paylor, who ran Thorntree Stores, at Middleton St George, near Darlington, with daughter Sharon Watson, closed the shop in June after a massive downturn in tobacco sales.

"We had the shop for four-and-a-half years. We built it up for the first couple of years and then we suddenly realised it wasn't as busy.

"Then it dawned on us that it was the cigarettes - and it was the downfall of the shop.

"If they don't come in for cigarettes, you don't get the impulse buys either.

"Contraband tobacco is a big problem for corner shop businesses."

Mrs Paylor said that towards the end, cigarette sales were down by £1,500 a week.

She said cigarettes could be bought on the black market for £2 a pack, compared to £4 or more in the shops.

"It was demoralising," said Mrs Paylor. "We decided to pull the plug. It was hard decision but at the end of the day you have to make a living."

Mrs Paylor's claims come days after customs officers reported a drop in the number of seizures of contraband cigarettes in the North-East, claiming it showed they were winning the war against cigarette smugglers