Date: 26 July 2006 19:58

SERIAL ROGUE TRADER FINED FOR FAKE FAGS AND DODGY DVDS

A rogue trader who has already been caught selling alcohol and fireworks to 
children was ordered to pay £1,800 after admitting flogging fake fags and 
pornographic films.

Victor Ramsey, 64, who owns the General Stores in Scotland Road, Chesterton, 
said he had bought the fake Benson and Hedges cigarettes for his girlfriend 
but she had not liked the taste.

A customer complained last year to Cambridgeshire County Council Trading 
Standards that he had bought cigarettes but they had not tasted like Benson 
and Hedges.

A Trading Standards investigation in May and June 2005 revealed that the 
Benson and Hedges cigarettes being sold by Ramsey were fake.

Officers not only seized 37 packets of 20 cigarettes from the store but also 
11 DVDS and five videos of unclassified hardcore pornography that were also 
on sale.

Ramsey admitted one specimen charge of selling fake cigarettes under the 
Trade Marks Act and one specimen charge of selling unclassified films.

 Cambridge Magistrates, sitting yesterday, Monday, fined Ramsey £250 for 
each offence - a total of £500 and ordered him to pay £1,300 in legal costs.

 The Court also heard how Ramsey had been prosecuted twice last year by 
Cambridgeshire County Council Trading Standards. In May 2005 Ramsey admitted 
selling fireworks to a child and in September he pleaded guilty to selling 
alcohol to a teenager who was under 18.

Malcolm Taylor for Cambridgeshire County Council Trading Standards, said: 
"Ramsey is a habitual law breaker having now faced and admitted four charges 
in the last year and a half. Passing off fake cigarettes as the real thing 
is not only illegal but dangerous as customers can no longer make an 
informed choice about what they are smoking. Everyone knows the dangers of 
smoking but shoppers would have no idea what was contained in the pirated 
cigarettes. Cambridgeshire County Council would rather work with businesses 
than prosecute but we will not hesitate to bring traders to book who 
continuously flout the law."

John Reynolds