UK: Polled Smokers Admit to Buying Illicit Tobacco  

Source from:  Derby Telegraph (uk)  11/18/2013

ILLEGAL tobacco sales in the UK have grown to the extent that more than one in five smokers admits to buying cigarettes and tobacco from illicit sources.

An online survey that was conducted on behalf of the Tobacco Manufacturers' Association showed that 22% of those questioned purchased tobacco products from non-shop sources.

Contraband cigarettes are brought into the UK from abroad or purchased from friends and family, work colleagues, in the pub, from car boot sales or markets.

And 30% of those who roll their own cigarettes owned up to buying their supplies from non-shop sources.

When asked about the kind of non-shopped product they have bought, more than one in ten of respondents said they knew it to be either counterfeit or fake.

Nearly a third of those polled were aware of illicit tobacco being sold in the local area. Of those who said they knew that illicit tobacco was being sold in their area, only 8% reported it. Of the 92% who didn't report illicit tobacco sales, around half said it was none of their business and around one in six were afraid to tell anyone in case they got in trouble.

Around one in seven were aware in the last year of under-18s buying or selling illicit tobacco locally.

The majority of those polled think organised criminals benefit from illicit tobacco. Revenues generated through the sale of counterfeit and contraband tobacco products also reach terrorist organisations around the world. Enditem