Wirral Council seizes nearly 23,500 illegal vapes and cigs in a year

By: Ed Barnes, Local Democracy Reporter

Wirral Council has seized nearly 23,500 illegal cigarettes and vapes this year in a number of operations across the borough to crack down on crime. The huge figures were revealed in a Trading Standards report published ahead of a meeting on September 9.

Over the last year, the local authority’s Trading Standards team has made enquiries into around 600 complaints with a total of 2,178 reports from members of the public. 92 illegal vapes and 37 packets of cigarettes were seized alongside the 800 arrests that were made as part of Operation Evolve with Merseyside Police, a project to crack down on gang-related activity following the murder of Elle Edwards.

Another crackdown, Operation CeCe, which is a collaboration between HMRC and council found 16,514 illegal cigarettes while Operation Joseph, a government funded project, saw 6771 illicit vapes seized from Wirral businesses.

A council report published before the tourism, communities, culture, and leisure meeting on September 19 said: “Officers have engaged with the businesses supplying the illicit vapes and in line with Wirral Council’s enforcement policy, issued warning letters to the businesses and the businesses have agreed to sign over the illicit products to the Service for forfeiture and destruction. Also, the businesses have signed undertakings to cease and desist from supplying illegal and illicit products”

National police initiative Operation Sceptre also found one shop sold a knife to a child volunteer.

Four prosecutions have also been carried out by the council over the last year, which includes a newsagent Grange News that was handed a hefty fine after illegally selling a vape to a teenager. The owner told the LDRS he took “full responsibility for our actions.”

(Local Democracy Reporting Service)