A MAN has been given a suspended prison sentence after selling thousands of fake cigarettes on social media. 

A Didcot man was prosecuted at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday December 8, 2020 following a raid last year at his home address by the council’s trading standards team and Thames Valley Police. The raid resulted in a seizure of more than 15,000 counterfeit cigarettes.

The court heard that on March 6, last year, an undercover trading standards officer bought 10 packets of Richmond cigarettes and 10 packets of Marlboro cigarettes for £85 after responding to an advert posted by Grzegorz Roziel on Facebook.

The Richmond cigarettes were subsequently confirmed as counterfeit whilst the Marlboro cigarettes had been smuggled from Poland.

This finding resulted in a warrant to enter Roziel’s home address on April 20, where more than15,000 fake cigarettes were found and seized. 

He pleaded guilty to nine offences including knowingly being a party to the fraudulent business of selling counterfeit cigarettes under the Fraud Act 2006.

Oxfordshire County Council’s trading standards team has warned the net is closing in on criminals who sell fake cigarettes on social media sites such as Facebook. Tobacco fraud is reported to cost the UK around £2 billion a year while treating smoking-related illnesses costs the NHS a similar amount annually. 

District Judge Rana sentenced Roziel to six months imprisonment, suspended for 20 months, 250 hours of unpaid work and to pay prosecution costs of £4,568.50 within three months.  All the cigarettes were ordered to be destroyed.