Willenhall smugglers ordered to repay £1.8m

Cigarette smugglers from Willenhall (West Midlands) have been ordered to repay more than £1.8 million of criminal profits or face having their prison sentences extended.

Sandor Kalman Nyari, of Buckingham Drive, and Dean Jackson, of High Road, Short Heath were among seven men jailed for a total of 11 years for conspiracy to evade excise duty in September 2007.

The pair have been ordered to pay back £930,673.25 and £955,877.25 respectively within three months or each face a further three years in prison, following a hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court last Friday.

The gang, led by Nyari, smuggled more than 5.5 million cigarettes and 35 bin bags full of contraband tobacco into the UK from Hungary between September 2005 and March 2006.

The 49-year-old was jailed for four years for his part in the illegal operation, with 34-year-old Jackson handed a 30-month prison sentence.

Source: This is Walsall - 28 January 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/dhOZjC

Second-hand smoke danger warning

Smokers are further risking their health by inhaling their own second-hand smoke, a study has shown.

Passive smoking is known to be a hazard for people living or working alongside smokers.

But its dangers to smokers were thought to be negligible compared with those of inhaling tobacco smoke directly.

Scientists in Italy conducted a study on newspaper vendors, who tend to work in isolation.

"Newsagents were chosen because they work alone in small news stands, meaning that any tobacco smoke in the air they breathe is strictly correlated to the number of cigarettes smoked by that newsagent," said researcher Maria Teresa Piccardo from the National Cancer Research Institute in Genoa.

"We studied the contribution of environmental tobacco smoke made to carcinogen exposure in 15 active smokers."

For someone smoking 14 cigarettes a day, re-inhaling exhaled "second-hand" smoke resulted in an exposure to cancer-triggers equivalent to smoking an extra 2.6 cigarettes.

"Both active and passive smoking contributions should always be considered in studies about the health of active smokers," said Ms Piccardo.

The research is published online in the journal Environmental Health.

Source: The Press Association - 29 January 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/cku1i1

Egyptians blow six percent of income on tobacco

A World Health Organisation survey warns against a 'heavy economic burden' as 20 percent of adults smoke in Egypt.

The typical Egyptian family spends six percent of its monthly income on tobacco, according to a survey released on Thursday that was carried out in coordination with the World Health Organisation.

"Six percent of the family income is spent on tobacco, perhaps more than on health and education," said Ahmad Abdellatif, the WHO representative for Egypt, calling it a "heavy economic burden" for the Arab world's most populated state.

The average smoker spends 110 pounds (20 dollars) a month on tobacco, according to the survey of more than 23,500 homes across Egypt conducted in 2009 by WHO, Egypt's health ministry and its statistics institute.

"Twenty percent of adults smoke in Egypt," Abdellatif told reporters, referring to over 15 year olds, while the rate of tobabbo use was 38 percent for men.

The survey found that at least 70 percent of those questioned said they were subjected to passive smoking at home or at the workplace.

Source: Middle-East Online - 29 January 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/cNXu59

Ireland: Man arrested after counterfeit cigarette haul

One man has been arrested following the seizure of €500,000 worth of counterfeit cigarettes and tobacco.

Customs officers searched a private residence in Carrig Na Bhearr, Co Cork yesterday.

They seized 750,000 unstamped cigarettes, 525 kilos of tobacco, and two vehicles.

The joint customs and Garda intelligence led operation also resulted in a number of follow -up searches when further small amounts of cigarettes were recovered.

The man arrested is being questioned at Gurranabraher garda station.

Source: Breaking News.ie - 28 January 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/bvDW7c

Hartlepool: Black market ciggies hampering health schemes

Lifesaving schemes to cut the number of people smoking are being hit by cheap tobacco supplied by smugglers.

Health bosses have now joined forces with police, trading standards and customs and excise staff to tackle contraband cigarette bootleggers who are putting lives at risk for a quick profit.

Regional figures have shown a third of teenagers and a fifth of adults buy illegal tobacco, while 64 per cent of smokers said cheap prices allowed them to continue.

Carole Johnson, head of health improvement for NHS Hartlepool, said: "Research shows that a 10 per cent increase in price leads to a four per cent drop in tobacco consumption.

"Hartlepool has one of the best smoking cessation teams in the country, but this is not enough if people can still get their hands on cheap cigarettes."

NHS Hartlepool and NHS Middlesbrough has each received £100,000 from the Department of Health to spend on smoking cessation and tackling the illicit tobacco trade.

In Hartlepool, money will be used to fund an additional trading standards officer and to target specific groups struggling to quit, such as shift and manual workers, ethnic minority groups, young people and pregnant women.

Michael Welsh, principal trading standards officer for Hartlepool Borough Council, said: "The black market for cigarettes is still buoyant and we all must play our part in reducing the sale of cheap and illicit tobacco products.

"Counterfeiters do not really care what they are selling and are not concerned with any health issues.

"It is only a quick profit for them and I would urge anyone who knows of any illegal activity to contact us."

The North of England Tackling Illicit Tobacco for Better Health programme is bringing organisations together to target the trade by using shared intelligence and new technology.

An estimated 58 million cigarettes and three tons of illegal tobacco were seized in custom's operations in the North East in 2008/09.

Source: Hartlepool Mail - 27 January 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/d7SvCr