Investigators busted a shop in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, selling cheap fags – and found tobacco hidden in a washing machine in an alley.

Trading standards officials carried out the 10-month operation centring on King European Supermarket, on Stafford Street, in Hanley.

It saw investigators buy two packets of cigarettes for just £10 on four occasions. Now shopkeeper Karzan Amini has admitted 12 trading standards offences.

Anthony O'Dowd, prosecuting for Stoke-on-Trent City Council, told North Staffordshire Justice Centre: "The offending took place over a sustained period of time and there is some risk to the public as who knows what is going in these counterfeit cigarettes."

Twenty-five-year-old Amini, of Lane Farm Grove, Sneyd Green, now runs King Grill and Shawarma in Hanley. The investigation ran from June 2021 to April 2022.

Trading standards officers investigated King European Supermarket, on Stafford Street, Hanley (Google).

Richard Oldroyd, mitigating, said: "2021 was not a good time to take over a small convenience store and soon got into financial difficulty. It was a time in lockdown when people got into the habit of ordering online.

"He was about 23 when this all started and still relatively immature. He started wanting to do well for his family and fell into difficulty and saw this as a quick fix to his problem."

Magistrates have handed Amini an 18-month community order. It includes 15 rehabilitation days and 160 hours unpaid work. He has 56 days to pay £300 costs and a £95 victim surcharge.

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