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 19.

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 Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) he took “full responsibility for our actions.”

One of these was a landscape gardener “who had taken substantial deposits from consumers and failed to complete work or refund money for work not carried out.” According to the council report, the defendant pleaded guilty to four regulatory offences at Liverpool Crown Court for “engaging in a commercial practice which contravened the requirements of professional diligence” and nine other offences.

The report said he was sentenced to 40 weeks, reduced to 38 weeks (5% credit) custody suspended for 18 months plus 150 hours unpaid work and 20 days Rehabilitation Activity Requirement (RAR.) The report said the landscape gardener was also the subject of a Proceeds of Crime (POCA) investigation with a benefit figure “derived from the defendant’s criminal behaviour” of £54,571.

However, due to the defendant’s debts in excess of £50,000 and no real assets, he was ordered to pay a nominal sum of £1. The compensation handed out to victims was £500 per victim and totalled £1,500, something the Judge reportedly acknowledged was “woefully inadequate.”

Another local landscaping business was found to be “taking money from a Wirral resident to purchase materials to relay a garden with paving, but no such works were carried out and no monies refunded.” He was summoned to court, pleaded guilty to all offences, and was sentenced to 18-month community order with 300 hours unpaid work for the Fraud Act offence plus 30 days RAR.

Costs awarded to the council were £3,045.81 plus a victim surcharge of £114.00. The results of a separate investigation into the compliance of e-bikes and e-scooters was carried out Trading Standards and the Office of Product Safety & Standards are still due to be published.

One case pursued by the council is awaiting sentencing in October 2024 with a date currently set for October 10 at Wirral Magistrates. According to the report published by the council, it “relates to a food safety incident at a local takeaway in Wirral. The Service had received a complaint that a resident had suffered an allergic reaction after consuming a takeaway meal from a local business.

“An officer from the Service visited the business and carried out a formal food standards’ test purchase. The officer replicated the order previously placed by the complainant, ordering a vegetable korma meal ‘without peanuts.’

“The meal was sent away for analysis by the public analyst who declared that peanut protein was present in the meal. The director of the company who had sold the meal to the officer was summonsed before the Court in relation to offences under Food Safety Act 1990, Food Safety and Hygiene Regulations 2013 and Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading TCCL Committee Report 4 Regulations 2008.

“He entered guilty pleas at Court and the case has been adjourned for sentencing until October 2024.”