Member

Those were going into those shops to buy illegal cigarettes and illegal vapes. The shops were extremely well stocked with these, not just under the counter but in cupboards, attics, holes under the floorboards and so on. It really was quite shocking to see the extent of the sale of counterfeit products. They were, of course, all counterfeit products; some might have been genuine cigarettes illegally imported without paying duty, but many were counterfeit. They met no safety standards. They were seized by the authorities on those occasions. The young people—it is usually young people—manning the counters in these premises know how to run very fast, and you do not often lay hands on them. But they are just, so to speak, the small players. There are big operators behind these sales of counterfeit products.