Closure order served by Reading Council on vape shop following illegal tobacco sales

A READING vape shop has been ordered to close for three months following a long investigation and repeated enforcement action from Council Trading Standards Officers.

Reading Magistrates Court granted a closure order on ‘Vape Shop’, 462 Oxford Road, Reading on 20 November 2024. It means the premises must remain shut until February 2025.

Trading under various names between 2019 and 2024, it is estimated that over 115,000 cigarettes have been seized from the business to date. Despite its rebranding as Vape Shop, illegal trading activities continued.

Investigations by the Council found the shop has functioned as a front for the distribution of illegal tobacco and, more recently, illegal vape pens.

Reading Trading Standards received numerous complaints from concerned local parents and residents that children as young as 13 were being supplied with cigarettes and vapes.

In September 2024, Reading Trading Standards raided the premises on Oxford Road, in partnership with Thames Valley Police, and HM Revenue and Customers (HMRC) officers.

Sniffer dogs found illegal cigarettes hidden under the shop counter, in the walls, and behind a false shelf and a mirror. After locating keys to a car, which was parked around the corner and known to be linked to the business, officers discovered 20,000 cigarettes stored in the vehicle.

Illegal stock stored in a vehicle linked to Vape Shop.

84 illegal vape pens were also discovered stored in the vehicle. Some products were found to falsely advertise a capacity of more than 15,000 puffs, more than 25 times the legal limit of nicotine strength and tank size under the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations.

Illegal stock seized by officers.

Despite the seizure of stock and its immediate temporary closure, the shop continued to sell illegal tobacco and vapes. 

After two further seizures were made in September and October, the Trading Standards Service, having exhausted alternative strategies and served notice on the shop that it intended to apply for the Closure Order under Section 80 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 due to the extensive criminal activity and the public nuisance perpetrated by the Vape Shop.

Closure order on shopfront.

Cllr Karen Rowland, lead Councillor for Environmental Services and Community Safety, said:

“This is an excellent result, following several years of careful observation work by our Trading Standards officers, and I’d like to sincerely thank our partner organisations, Thames Valley Police, and HM Revenue and Customs, for their support during the operation.

“The business clearly had no consideration for the health and wellbeing of their customers in the community. They were simply running a dangerous business to undercut sales by legitimate shops in the area with the primary interest of lining their own pockets.  Anyone involved in the illegal tobacco trade is complicit in making it more attractive for children to start smoking, taking advantage of cash-strapped families, as well undermining our compliant traders in Reading.

“This business- and indeed any similar operations - need to be clear that such closures can and will happen again, should they attempt such detrimental activities in the future. Operations  such as this have no place in our communities, and I would strongly urge anyone with information on shops such as this to report them which can be done so anonymously.”

To report sources of illegal tobacco, contact the Illegal Tobacco Hotline on 0300 999 6 999 (information can be left anonymously).

ENDS