Tackling cheap illegal tobacco roadshow comes to Bath
The campaign to tackle cheap illegal tobacco across the South West is coming to Bath, on July 12.
Illegal tobacco is known to make it easier for children to start smoking, because it is sold at pocket money prices, meaning that young people could start smoking. Illegal tobacco is also known to make communities more attractive to criminals. This is why Bath & North East Somerset Council is working with Smokefree South West on a campaign to increase awareness about illegal tobacco among the general public, encouraging fewer people to buy it and more people to report it. Trained staff will be talking to the public at Sainsbury’s car park in Green Park, Bath, on July 12 to highlight the dangers of illegal tobacco. They will be joined by Cllr David Dixon and trading standards officers. Cllr David Dixon (Lib Dem, Oldfield), Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, said: “Smoking is a serious public health issue and cheap illegal tobacco just makes it even harder to keep our children away from harm. That is why Bath & North East Somerset Council’s public health and trading standards teams are working together to help tackle the problem.
Lear MoreTobacco tax up in smoke
Police are making headway in dismantling the illicit cigarette smuggling syndicates costing the country millions of rands in lost revenue annually. According to SARS spokesperson Adrian Lackay, the 2012-13 financial year saw 2580 seizures of illicit cigarettes (138 million sticks, with a value of R63.4m), and 22 seizures of counterfeit cigarettes (666510 sticks, with a value of R467 860).
Lackay said they were aware that a significant number of illicit cigarettes were consumed in South Africa each year. “This loss occurs through the smuggling of cigarettes into the country from across our borders and the diversion into the local market of cigarettes that are earmarked for export.
“The prevalence of the trade in and consumption of illicit cigarettes in the South African market undermines the government’s efforts to reduce the negative health impacts of cigarette smoking ,” he said. Last week, police in Limpopo made a major breakthrough with the seizure of counterfeit cigarettes worth more than R3.5m at a village near the Beitbridge border post. These were seized in a separate incident and preliminary investigations linked the contraband cigarettes to having been smuggled from Zimbabwe.
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Stronger cross-border cooperation to combat smuggling
Over 70 thousand counterfeit goods were seized during a major Joint Customs Operation (JCO) code-named “ERMIS”. The Operation focused on postal and courier mail traffic, to identify fake products shipped through small consignments. Joint Customs Operation helped to avoid losses to the EU’s and the member states’ budgets in the form of evaded customs duties and taxes.
JCO ERMIS was carried-out by the Greek Customs Administration and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) in March 2014; the operation also involved customs experts from the Commission, some member states, FYROM, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey. The results of this operation were unveiled at a debriefing meeting in Athens and are published across Europe.
The mission of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) is threefold: it protects the financial interests of the European Union by investigating fraud, corruption and any other illegal activities; it detects and investigates serious matters relating to the discharge of professional duties by members and staff of the EU institutions and bodies that could result in disciplinary or criminal proceedings; and it supports the EU institutions, in particular the European Commission, in the development and implementation of anti-fraud legislation and policies.
http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/legislation/?doc=93728
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Armed thieves in Brazil steal Samsung tablets, phones
Samsung phone in pocketBrazil suffered one the largest electronics thefts in its history over the weekend when armed robbers raided a Samsung factory in São Paulo state. Around 20 thieves with automatic weapons raided the facility in Campinas during the evening of July 6, subduing some 200 workers and guards in a four-and-a-half-hour ordeal. The raiders kidnapped eight employees and used their identity documents to gain access to the plant. Two workers – both security staff – were held as hostages during the raid though thankfully no-one was injured.
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Amazon sued by retailer over counterfeit allegations
Amazon on iPad Amazon and Apple are facing a legal challenge from an electronics retailer accused of selling counterfeit goods. Hard 2 Find Accessories (H2FA) claims Amazon wrongly took down its product listings, at Apple’s request, causing it to lose more than $180,000 a month and effectively shutting its business down. It also says the allegations of trading in counterfeits amounts to defamation. Apple said that the products being sold were believed to be counterfeit because they were priced at a steep discount, while customer reviews suggested that they may not be genuine.
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Campaign to target illegal tobacco trade
Trade in illegal tobacco available at ‘pocket money prices’ is the target of a county-wide campaign. The East Sussex Tobacco Partnership is launching the campaign to highlight the dangers of illegal tobacco and target those involved in its supply. Illegal tobacco is available in various places in the community including the workplace, private homes, pubs, markets, car boot sales and on the street.
The UK Border Agency averages more than one million counterfeit cigarette seizures per day. Low costs of production and high levels of demand make illicit cigarettes one of the world’s most illegally trafficked goods.
http://www.ryeandbattleobserver.co.uk/news/local/campaign-to-target-illegal-tobacco-trade-1-6160031
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Ministry moves to tackle smuggling
HA NOI (VNS) — Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai on Tuesday urged the nation’s market watch forces to take more drastic measures to curb smuggling and other forms of trade fraud in the second half of this year.
Addressing a conference on Tuesday, Hai asked them to concentrate on six “hot” groups of goods that were usually smuggled or faked – fertiliser, fuel, liquefied gas, helmets, cigarettes and poultry.
He said that the ministry would improve the legal framework and relevant documents to facilitate the work of market watch forces.
Do Thanh Lam, deputy head of the ministry’s Market Watch Department, said that so far, the Government has issued 45 decrees on fines for violations involving the production, trade and transport of products including those that tend to be smuggled or counterfeited.
http://vietnamnews.vn/society/256961/ministry-moves-to-tackle-smuggling.html
Lear MoreSmuggling at the national level: Oil concern chief allegedly arrested
Igorr Zhilin, Head of the Belarusian State Group Company for Oil and Chemistry (Belnaftakhim), was arrested on July, 1 and placed in the pretrial detention centre, news media Charter97 reports with a reference to its own source. By the decree No 631 dated by June 30, 2014 Mr Zhilin was released from his position. The information has not been confirmed or denied officially yet. But there is a dash in the “Management personnel” section on the company’s official website.
Igor Zhilin, a citizen of Russia, was appointed to the position of the head of the concern on February 4, 2011. Earlier he headed JSC Hrodna Azot. It is rumoured that he took the position thanks to push given by the late oligarch Boris Berezovsky.
Lear MoreCounterfeit clothing dealer jailed
A TRADER found with more than £70,000 of fake clothing has been jailed for ten months. Ivan Genis, 58, of Hendon Wood Lane, Barnet, was jailed at Wood Green Crown Court last month after being found guilty of five charges of being a director of a firm looking to sell counterfeit goods. He was also ordered to pay costs of almost £18,000 to Haringey Council. The court heard how Genis sold the fake goods, including counterfeit Nike, Adidas and Ralph Lauren clothes, to retailers across the UK from his warehouse in White Hart Lane, Tottenham.
They then unwittingly sold the counterfeit clothing on to the public. When Haringey Council’s trading standards team raided the warehouse, as well as Genis’ Brands Plaza Trading Limited premises in Borehamwood, in May 2009 and July 2011, they seized thousands of t-shirts, polo shirts and tracksuit bottoms worth £73,000.
The council is now seeking to recover any profits Genis made from selling the knock-off goods, while the court ruled he must forfeit his stash of dodgy clothes.
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Vietnam’s Tobacco Problem
Campaigners are beginning to tackle smoking in one of the world’s most tobacco-friendly countries.
In a small street-side cafe deep within Hanoi’s labyrinthine Old Quarter, a group of middle-aged men sit drinking bitter iced tea, swapping stories, and smoking from a huge bamboo water pipe. Their attention is caught by a foreign tourist ordering a drink at a nearby table, and one of them beckons in broken English for him to join the group.
“You smoke, my friend?” he asks, pointing to the pipe. “It’s very good. Very strong. Makes you strong too.” Apologetic, the visitor refuses. “But you are in Vietnam,” the man insists, breaking into a broad gap-filled smile of yellowing teeth. “Men smoke here.”
http://thediplomat.com/2014/07/vietnams-tobacco-problem/
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