A Brighton corner shop boss faces a prison sentence after being caught with illicit cigarettes and tobacco valued at more than £126,000.
Cheya Sherwany, 38, who runs Burnett’s, in Preston Street, Brighton, pleaded guilty at Lewes Crown Court to six charges related to the scam.
Sherwany, an Iraqi father of three, was remanded in custody by Judge Jeremy Gold to await his fate while a pre-sentence report was prepared.
Emily Lanham, prosecuting, said that officers from Sussex Police and Brighton and Hove City Council carried out a joint licensing visit to the Preston Street shop on Wednesday 6 October 2021.
They found a quantity of alcohol stolen from retail chains such as Marks and Spencer and Lidl, among others, and a large amount of illicit tobacco.
She said that these items were seized and taken to a secure store for examination and that tobacco makers said that the tobacco fell into three categories.
Some were illicit or fake cigarettes, not made by legitimate firms, or they were genuine cigarettes that had been made for sale on the continent – or they were non-duty paid.
The third category included cigarettes intended to be sold duty-free or obtained before any import duty had been paid. As such, the court was told, it was not legal to sell any of them in Britain.
The council’s trading standards team obtained a number of warrants to enter the premises owned or controlled by the defendant.
Raids were carried out on Thursday 25 November last year when officers found “a substantial amount of illicit tobacco” – worth more than £150,000 in retail value.
Most was found at Sherwany’s home address, given as Eshton Road, Eastbourne, at a previous hearing.
Miss Lanham said that further smaller seizures were made at each of the commercial premises owned or controlled by the defendant.
She said that samples were sent away for analysis, with tobacco makers reporting that, as with the first seizure, none of the cigarettes were able to be sold legally in Britain.
Further inquiries found that Sherwany had 31 bank accounts, with 10 banks, and three accounts showed exceptionally high levels of transactions and withdrawals.
These were consistent with a large commercial premises in a big city, with significant sums of cash – often four figures – withdrawn from those accounts daily.
Investigators found no audit trail or explanation as to where the money went after it was withdrawn.
The court was told that officers again attended Sherwany’s home address on Friday 29 April where a further stash of illicit tobacco and financial documentation was found hidden away
More tobacco was also hidden in a BMW car outside the address. This was seized and impounded.
The court was told that Sherwany had dodged tax totalling more than £100,000 as a result of his illicit trade.
Jay Shah, defending, said that Sherwany had arrived in Britain in about 2002 and that he was a leaseholder – not a shop owner – who had borrowed money and run up considerable debts.
Mr Shah said that there was no evidence that he ran any shops other than Burnett’s, in Preston Street.
Miss Lanham applied for prosecution costs of £41,753.
Judge Gold adjourned the case for sentence on Friday 22 July.
What’s more, the shop has lost its selling price as it will no longer have a licence.