A Barrow shop has been ordered to close for three months for the sales of illegal tobacco and vapes.
Easy Shop on Church Street has been made subject of the closure order following a joint operation by Westmorland and Furness Trading Standards and Barrow Neighbourhood Policing Team.
The closure order has been brought under anti-social behaviour legislation and is the first in Westmorland and Furness for the sales of illegal tobacco or vapes from a business.
Westmorland and Furness Council secured the closure order at Barrow Magistrates Court yesterday.
The closure order is for Gurga Vape Shop Ltd, which trades as Easy Shop.
The court heard the shop has been the subject of multiple enforcement visits dating to May 2024, when the premises traded as CK Newspoint.
In July 2024, trading standards officers from the council visited the shop with a tobacco detection dog and found 6,840 cigarettes, 4.85 kilos of hand rolling tobacco and 196 vapes concealed under the floor.
The illegal goods, with an estimated street value of £28,000, were seized by officers.
A week later, a further visit was conducted and officers found more illegal tobacco being concealed on the premises and within a vehicle.
In January, the shop changed ownership and started trading as Easy Shop.
Trading Standards revisited the shop and seized a further consignment of hand rolling tobacco, cigarettes and vapes.
In February and April, the shop also failed under-age test purchase exercises, when underage volunteers were sold vapes.
During another search of the shop with a tobacco detection dog earlier this month, a large quantity of tobacco products were seized after two further hiding places were discovered, one hidden in a waste pipe and the second within a brick wall.
