A BOOTLEG cigarette seller has been sentenced after supplying hundreds of illegal cigarettes in Herefordshire.

Shram Ali Muhammad appeared before magistrates in Hereford in April after entering guilty pleas to six charges at an earlier hearing.

The court heard from the prosecutor that the 47-year-old had supplied 838 packets of cigarettes and 146 packets of rolling tobacco which did not carry a combined health warning, and did not comply with packaging regulations in Ross-on-Wye on May 21, 2021.

He had sold 480 packets of Lambert and Butler cigarettes, 240 packets of Benson and Hedges cigarettes, 86 packets of Mayfair cigarettes, and 46 packets of Amber tobacco which bore signs likely to be mistaken for registered trade marks in Ross on the same date, the court heard.

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He had also supplied four packets of Queen cigarettes and two packets of Benson and Hedges cigarettes which did not comply with packaging requirements in Ross between August 5, 2021, and October 1, 2021.

Two packets of cigarettes sold by Muhammad in Ross on August 24 bore a sign likely to be mistaken for registered trade mark, Benson and Hedges, the court heard.

Muhammad, of High Street, Stourbridge, was handed a 12-month community order with a three-month electronically monitored curfew.

He was also ordered to pay prosecution costs of £500 and a £95 victim surcharge.