Leeds Mama Mia convenience store owners avoid jail after being caught with thousands of packets of fake cigarette and a bag of £33,000 in cash

Ali Mohamad and Aram Mohammedie continued to sell counterfeit products from their shop in Leeds despite repeated warnings from authorities.

The pair had been told to expect jail sentences at a court hearing last month after their offending was described as a 'flagrant disregard' of the law.

The two men were convicted of trading standards offences at the Mama Mia store on Harehills Lane.The offending came to light on June 24, 2020.

A police community support officer on patrol in the area became suspicious after seeing a shop assistant hide something under the counter as he was serving a customer.

The officer spoke to the assistant and then asked for the owner to be contacted.

Mohammedie spoke to the officer but denied anything illegal was being sold at the shop.

The officer then noticed a bag of illegal tobacco products hanging behind the counter.

The shop was searched by West Yorkshire Police and 2,757 illegal packets of cigarettes and 496 pouches of hand rolling tobacco were recovered.

Some of the products contained false Regal, Richmond, Benson & Hedges and Amber Leaf trade marks.

All of the products either failed to display a health warning or contained a health warning in a foreign language.

The defendants continued to commit similar offences despite the initial "shot across the bows".

On November 23, 2020, West Yorkshire Trading Standards arranged for a test purchase to be made at the store.

Mohamad served a test purchaser with cigarettes bearing a false Richmond trade mark.

Officers returned to the store four days later and Mohamad was behind the counter with more illegal tobacco products.

The premises were searched and 1,230 packets of cigarettes and 167 pouches of tobacco were found hidden in a store room and behind a ceiling light.

A bag containing £33,000 in cash was found in a store room on the second floor.

The products contained false Richmond, Regal, Mayfair, Golden Virginia and Amber Leaf trade marks and did not contain proper health warnings.

A further inspection took place on February 25 last year and 341 illegal tobacco products were recovered.

A trading standards test purchaser returned to the store in September and was again able to buy more fake cigarettes.

Mohamad, 64, pleaded guilty to nine counts of possessing goods with a false trade mark for sale, one of producing or supplying a tobacco product in breach of packaging regulations and one of producing or supplying a tobacco product with a unit pack or container not carrying a combined health warning.

Mohammedie, 33, pleaded guilty to 15 counts of possessing goods with a false trade mark for sale, two of producing or supplying a tobacco product in breach of packaging regulations and two of producing or supplying a tobacco product with a unit pack or container not carrying a combined health warning.

Mohammedie pleaded guilty to a further count of selling goods with a sign or packaging bearing a sign likely to be mistaken for a registered trade mark.

Both men were sentenced yesterday (February 9) after the earlier hearing was adjourned.

The judge, Recorder Andrew Latimer, gave Mohamad an 18-week sentence, suspended for 18 months. He was also made the subject of a curfew order for four months.

Mohamad's barrister, Victoria Smith-Swain, said the defendant was in poor health and had now stopped trading

Mohammedie was made the subject of a 12-month community order with 120 hours of unpaid work.

John Richard, for Mohammedie, said his client committed the offences as the business suffered due to Brexit and the pandemic.

He said: "This was very much someone who was desperate and whose business was falling apart."