UK shop owner sentenced for selling ‘dangerous’ Jin Ling cigarettes

A shop owner in Boston, Lincolnshire, has been found guilty of intentionally selling ‘dangerous’ cigarettes in the first case of its kind in the UK, according to a story in the Boston Standard.

The man, who was found guilty at Boston Magistrates’ Court of eight offences, including the sale of non self-extinguishing cigarettes, was ordered to carry out 270 hours of unpaid community work during the next 12 months. He was also ordered to pay the £5,176 costs of Lincolnshire Trading Standards, which brought the prosecution.

Since November 2011, all cigarettes sold in the UK have had to comply with EU standards that require them to be self-extinguishing.

The senior trading standards officer at Lincolnshire Trading Standards, Emma Milligan, was quoted as saying that the man had been in possession of almost 1,000 Jin Ling cigarettes, “which were of particular concern to us”.

“Jin Ling is an illicit brand of cigarette not made to European standards and therefore illegal in Europe,” Milligan said.

“We believe that this type of cigarette caused a local house fire in Spalding in which one person died, and during the course of the inquest the Coroner raised serious concerns about the sale of illegal cigarettes in the area, hence why we have been cracking down on sales of this product.”