Hartlepool convenience store faces licence review amid claims it sold illegal vapes

Hartlepool Borough Council trading standards officers visited Lifestyle Express, known as Top Shop, in Jesmond Gardens following anonymous complaints around illicit electronic cigarettes being sold.

A test purchase attempt was subsequently made by a local authority officer in May, who was given “an extensive list of what was available” and was allegedly sold an Elux Legend 3500.

The product, which “cannot legally be sold in the UK”, was taken “from a concealed and out-of-site place behind the counter”, according to council documents.

The following month trading standard officers and Cleveland Police executed a search warrant at the shop and the flat above where “1,214 non-compliant devices were seized with an estimated total street value of £12,140”.

According to the licensing review application, the devices were seized from “from out-of-sight spaces below the counter, on a staircase leading to the flat and from a room in the flat”.

It added the store, and others in Hartlepool, had been warned via letter of the laws in place around such devices.

Submitted by a council trading standards officer, the application claimed shop bosses were trying to “conceal such items beneath the counter to avoid detection” and “opposing the licensing objective to prevent crime and disorder”.

It added: “It is trading standards contention that the illicit supply of these items casts significant doubt on the licence holder’s suitability to be licensed to sell alcohol.”

The documents stated the licence holder, Aniruth Sivalingham, was interviewed under caution on July 4 in relation to the supply of the non-compliant electronic cigarettes.

According to council reports, Mr Sivalingham stated the devices “were on his premises by mistake” after being delivered inadvertently following an order for legal vapes which are sold at the store.

He added, after returning from a weekend away the day before the search warrant took place, that he ensured the store “stopped selling the devices” which he “knew were illegal to sell”.

Council chiefs argue this version of events is “not compatible with evidence gathered”.

Officers had also previously observed “empty non-compliant electronic cigarette packaging” on the floor outside the shop.

The Mail attempted unsuccessfully to contact the store for a comment.