The South West sees black market cigarette packs soar
A THIRD of black market cigarettes in the region are either illegal or purchased outside of the UK, a new survey has revealed.
An Empty Discarded Pack Collection Survey by MSIntelligence has shown the increasing use of bootlegged, smuggled or counterfeit cigarettes in the South West.
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The South West sees black market cigarette packs soar
The 'non domestic' rate in the South West rose from 14.7 per cent in 2011 to 32.8 per cent in 2012.
That means almost a third of all cigarettes smoked in the South West are contributing nothing to the exchequer.
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The survey also shows that the level of non-duty paid cigarettes increased nationally to 26.4 per cent, the highest level recorded since the survey started in 2008.
Will O'Reilly is a former Scotland Yard Detective Chief Inspector and since November 2011 he has been conducting research to gain intelligence and understanding of the illicit trade in cigarettes across the United Kingdom. Mr O'Reilly said: "Just as armed robberies of the 70s and 80s made way for the drugs trade and large-scale fraud in the 90s, so a new crime of choice has emerged, which carries even less risk and even greater profits. The trade in illicit tobacco has become the primary source of revenue for some criminal gangs and terrorist groups "
3 Comments
by CornishPirate
Tuesday, March 05 2013, 10:06AM
“The starred out word is "e-q-u-i-t-a-b-l-e".
Why that's considered offensive is beyond me!”
by CornishPirate
Tuesday, March 05 2013, 9:50AM
“"Criminal gangs and terrorist groups"... Oh please!!? The government take £12 BILLION a year in excise duty and VAT from UK tobacco sales.
Constantly raising taxes, constantly raising 'duty' on fuel, cigarettes, alcohol and anything else that can earn them an extra few quid. Always squeezing the people for more and more, and never injecting that money back into public services at a ******ble rate - instead using the excuse of national debt, austerity measures etcetc. All the while these government leaders and politicians, mostly in the back pocket of major corporations are extremely well paid and live a life of luxury.
Our government is controlled by corporations, and conducts itself the same way as a corporation... All smart and smiley on the outside, but underneath the 'Customer Service Smile' they're out to make as much money as possible.
Maybe if you stopped taxing everything at such a high rate, people would stop bringing it in from abroad?! There simply wouldn't be a market for it. Ever thought of that, you fat cockroaches? Probably not, because then they would only earn maybe a casual £8-£9 billion instead of the tasty +£12 Billion they are currently earning.
http://tinyurl.com/6hfep9a
Add the money they make from tobacco to the money they make from alcohol... Duty on a bottle of wine in the UK is £1.33. Compared with two pence in France and Zero in Spain, Italy and Germany. 28% of the price of a pint of Beer is tax.
Add the ridiculous amount of tax from fuel to all this too...! We pay on average, approx 58.95p fuel tax on every litre of petrol. Then we also pay VAT on the petrol. Then we pay VAT on the fuel tax too (11.79p per litre)! This means that around 63% of the cost of fuel is TAX.
On top of this, anywhere from +20% of our salaries go on tax as well! They must literally be swimming in our hard earned money! But the people who supply a nice bit of cheap tobacco now and again are the criminals? Yeah right.
You're working for the criminals Will O'Reilly - So stick that in your pipe and smoke it.”
by Foldart
Tuesday, March 05 2013, 9:33AM
“Well, it was bound to happen, wasn't it? The government got too greedy and piled on the duty and now look what's happened.
With plain packaging to come, it's only going to get easier for some to traffic duty-free tobacco. And good luck to them.”