To report someone selling illegal fags?

[callmeovercautious]

Where children could buy them?

[ilovesooty]

How on God's earth was CheCazzo's comment racist in any way shape or form OP?

I was wondering that as well.

[drownangels]

God, if I reported everyone who does this with fags around our way I would never be off the phone!

[TheSmallClanger]

Cigarette smuggling is often carried out by organised crime rings who are also involved in the illegal movement of all kinds of stuff, including dodgy alcohol and weapons. They defraud the government millions every year. They are twats and deserve everything they get.

At least those big corporations who haven't paid their tax bills actually contribute by creating employment. Smugglers create nothing except money for themselves.

I work for HM Revenue & Customs as well. This whole honour-among-thieves I'm-so-proud-I'm-I'm-not-a-snitch schoolyard bollocks has made me lie about my profession to protect my DD on more than one occasion.

[GrowSomeCress]

I'm amazed how people will ignore facts (about links to organised crime for example), to justify buying cigarettes cheap.

It is sad

[Molecule]

It is organised crime and should be reported. This is generally not someone filling his van up on a day trip to Calais.

A very mild looking father at dc's extremely middle class school was found guilty of importing £3 million worth of cigarettes, so it is a massive business. I know of a driver working for Italians who had large farming interests, he was expected to take cattle to Italy and return with cigarettes, hidden in false floors of the waggon. He got caught in France, and was, of course, abandoned by his employers. The people behind this trade are ruthless and will no doubt be into many other illegal activities.

callme, as a responsible citizen you really should report this (and ignore those accusing you of being a snitch).

[CheCazzo]

Of course my post wasn't racist. I did point that out in a subsequent post which got zapped because I told the OP.??oh well perhaps I'll not repeat that bit
Anyway I'm off to bed. Might take my carton of Polish fags with me

[LayMizzRarb]

I'm astonished that so many people condone people evading tax and think it's ok to flame the OP.
By buying the bootleg goods you are are complicit in the evasion. Is it ok to skip paying for prescriptions as well?
It may be a relatively small amount of tax you're avoiding, £10 a week or so , but multiply that by years and by thousands of people around the country.
I wonder if it cross your mind in 30 years time when you look at your dwindling pension.
That may sound dramatic, but you are a small piece of the bigger picture.

And whilst no cigarettes are safe, please be very wary of people selling bootleg booze as well, normally the same gangs and organisations.Trading Standards have closed many factories producing replica famous brands that contain poison and unsafe chemicals including ethanol. These cause brain damage and liver failure. £5 a bottle vodka appeals to young kids, just hope it's not your children being tempted.

[WorraLiberty]

People are talking about organised crime and yet the OP has hinted at no such thing.

Like I believe CheCazzo was saying the cigarettes will probably be from an Eastern Bloc country, because they're the cheapest.

My DH works in a large car factory and could buy fags, tobacco and booze on the cheap any time.

But from people who regularly travel to those countries to stock up.

[nonameslefttouse]

I always wonder how they put a figure on the black market how do the experts know its costing £1 billion in unpaid tax surely if they know how much isn't being collected they know how many are coming in if they know this then they know where from and how therefore if they can pin point so much they know by whom! Or as I suspect its another wild guess at a figure!

I can't believe you can get them for 4.50! -where from and are they like dried manure-

[WorraLiberty]

CheCazzo now you're being racist and homophobic

[Bobbybird40]

Molecule, the last line of your post is very, very, very pompous.

[DontEvenThinkAboutIt]

It's organised crime FFS!

Look what extras you can get in illegal cigarettes. Still, as long as they are cheap

[whateveritakes]

Countries where "snitching" is encouraged aren't the sort of places I'd want to live.
Maybe it is illegal but that's up to to the authorities to sort out. Cars drive on motorways at 80 not 70 and I was drinking in pub's at 17 not 18. One of those they have sorted out through stricter enforcement and one they haven't really. It's up to them not you.

[CheCazzo]

Precisely worra. Nothing organised crime about the guy here - his employees are Polish and bring a few back when they visit home. I can't be doing with all the tax evasion moralising. Come back to me when the government runs a clean ship and stops wasting untold billions on shit. Oh - and putting aside the rights and wrongs - if smokers and drinkers (both legal last time I looked) weren't tax to buggery and back this situation wouldn't arise.

[TheSmallClanger]

Worra, I'm not sure exactly how the averages are calculated, but I work in this sector and can tell you categorically, from first-hand evidence, that a large proportion of smuggled cigarettes do not come in through people abusing their entitlement a little bit. We're talking people coming through the channels with three suitcases full of the things, which they then deliver to their boss down the road, if the sniffer dogs/x-rays/agents don't pick them up.

Even if you don't care about lost tax revenue, these thieving twats are one of the biggest reasons that air travel is the total arse-ache that it is these days.

[maddening]

Foreign fags I'd not report - although morally dubious and filling criminal pockets rather than the tax for our country.

But fake fags can be dangerous with dangerous levels of chemicals and poisons ( as if cigs aren't bad enough in the first place )

I would definitely snitch if I knew they were targeting children fake or foreign (illegal cigs not children)

[LouMae]

Maryz, I'm not justifying it, simply explaining it. The cost of fags has proportionally risen far far more in recent years than food etc. You can't price people out of buying fags if there's an alternative, just like making drugs illegal doesn't stop people taking them. I don't smoke or take drugs, just making some relevant points.

[WorraLiberty]

TheSmallClanger I was talking about the OP

Staying unusually on topic here

She's only made 2 posts...none of which mention organised crime.

The person selling cheap fags could be one of the 1000's that CheCazzo and I are talking about.

[WorraLiberty]

And air travel is the total arse-ache that it is these days dure to terrorism too.

So I'm not going to complain about that aspect of it.

[TheSmallClanger]

They're still thieving twats. No sympathy from me.

If I was found to have not reported someone doing this, I would lose my job.

[FamiliesShareGerms]

Bobbybird so if the OP does report this illegal activity "she'll probably be looking over her shoulder for weeks"? But I thought these were the nice friendly, just-brought-a-few-extra-packs-back-from-holiday illegal fag sellers? Not those other nasty organised criminals... Jeez

[CheCazzo]

Anyway - if the fags I get are not fakes, which they are not, and if they are legally purchased in the European country of origin, which they are and therefore the local European tax is paid on them then wtf actually is the problem? If we were not in Europe or if they were coming from a non RU country then you might have an argument.

[FamiliesShareGerms]

The illegal fag trade is linked to funding terrorist activity, Worra

[TheSmallClanger]

The rules are that any fags you bring back must be for personal use. The relevant officers know how much someone is likely to be able to smoke themselves (cos quite a lot of them smoke themselves if the truth be told). You can give foreign fags away, but you can't sell them.