Bolton Council seizes 100s of illegal vapes and cigarettes

Bolton Council announced on Friday that officers had visited three shops across the borough since the start of the week.

During these visits these seized more than 500 illegal vapes and more than 700 illegal cigarettes.

A Bolton Council statement said: “Trading standards officers have seized more illegal vapes and cigarettes during visits to three shops in Bolton this week.”

This came to a total of 586 illegal vapes and 742 illegal cigarettes.

Hundreds of illegal vapes and cigarettes were seized (Image: Bolton Council)

An image supplied by the authority shows a huge collection of illegal cigarettes, vapes and tobacco products gathered across a table from the three shops.

Illegal vapes and cigarettes are sold at a variety of different prices and are often found by trading standards officers stowed away in different parts of shops where they are being sold illegally. 

The use of illicit products like these has sparked wide ranging concerns about health and wellbeing across Bolton, in particular from school headteachers.

In some schools, pupils have been taken ill after using illegal vapes, while head teachers say they have noticed a "really worrying trend in our young people."

As yet no further details have been released about the shops to have been searched or their locations across Bolton.

But this comes amid an ongoing crackdown on the sale of illegal products like these all around the borough in recent months and years.

In March this year the council announced that more than 12,000 illegal vapes had been seized on the streets of Bolton over the previous six months.

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During those six months, trading standards officers say that the vapes have been found hidden in all kinds of places, with just under 3,000 seized from one premises alone.

Businesses raided included convenience stores, off-licences, mobile phone shops and petrol stations.

This came after a dedicated team of Bolton Council training standards officers were assigned to investigate illegal vape sales around the borough.

In March they said that the premises they raided over the previous six months are now being further investigated and may be subject to prosecution and possible closure orders.