Ettalong Beach: Uncle Jake's Tobacco Shop Gosford fined $144k for illegal vapes, cigarettes
One of the first Central Coast tobacconists to come before the court after being raided for selling illegal vapes and cigarettes has been hit with a massive fine. But here’s why it may never be paid.
A magistrate has whacked a tobacconist with a massive fine for selling illegal vapes and cigarettes.
But she saved her most scathing assessment for the company’s lawyer, who she said made a “blatant” and “deliberate” attempt to mislead the court.
Umina Holdings Group Pty Ltd, trading as Uncle Jake’s Tobacco Shop, faced Gosford Local Court on Thursday where a lawyer, acting as an agent for the company’s actual lawyer, entered guilty pleas to six charges of having tobacco products visible to the public, displaying tobacco advertising in public, supplying a restricted substance by a non-wholesaler, selling cigarettes without health warnings and setting up a tobacco shop without notifying authorities.
The court heard the shop was raided by NSW Health inspectors on January 22 where they seized 507 illegal vapes, 53 boxes of oral nicotine patches, 2159 cigarette packets containing 43,180 cigarettes and 2.7kg of loose tobacco leaf.
An agreed set of facts states there was a billboard advertising tobacco and vapes on the footpath and inspectors could clearly see the cigarettes and vapes on sale from outside and inside the shop.
The shop’s lawyer, John Kahn of Fideslink Legal, provided unsigned and undated written submissions via his agent.
Magistrate Kirralee Perry said the submissions essentially argued the shop had only been set up six weeks prior to the raid and the owners were naive and ignorant to the regulations around selling tobacco products.
She said the submissions stated this naivety was exacerbated by an “evolving regulatory landscape” and the company had only made “modest” profit of $213,000.
Ms Perry said the submissions went further stating the company had since been sold and the new owners had implemented compliant systems and asked the fine to be imposed be limited to $15,000.
Ms Perry questioned Mr Kahn’s agent who confirmed the company used to have two directors but one had since left the business.
He said the remaining director — listed on court documents as Sikander Singh, 31, of Valley View South Australia — was in India, could not be contacted and had no intention of returning to Australia “any time soon”.
Ms Perry said it was “wholly inappropriate” for Mr Kahn to request a specific “outcome” and vented her annoyance that neither he, nor the company’s director appeared in court.
“I am appalled by the submissions and I am appalled at the manner in which this matter has been brought to court,” she said.
Ms Perry said the submission that the company had been sold was a “blatant” and “deliberate attempt to mislead the court”.
“I’m making a positive finding there was a deliberate attempt to mislead the court,” she said.
Ms Perry also said the community would be “appalled” at the suggestion a $213,000 profit was “modest” and other submissions made by Mr Kahn were “factually and legally wrong”.
The NSW Health prosecutor told the court each of the offences “directly and seriously undermines” the public health objectives of the Tobacco Act by circumventing the regulations in place to limit public exposure to tobacco products and advertising.
“The presence of a sign board on a public footpath advertising tobacco is particularly brazen and carried and increased risk of undermining the object of the Tobacco Act due to its prominence and visibility to passig members of the public, including young people,” she wrote in her submissions.
“The offending was brazen, and reflected a complete disinterest in multiple aspects of the legislative scheme, in favour of the offender’s own financial gain.”
The magistrate convicted the company on all charges, fined it a total of $144,000 and ordered it pay NSW Health’s legal costs of $5,000.
Ms Perry also ordered all the cigarettes, vapes and loose tobacco to be forfeited.
But given the director is in India and unlikely to return, the fine and costs may never be paid.
This masthead contacted Mr Kahn by phone but he declined to comment.
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Originally published as Ettalong Beach: Uncle Jake's Tobacco Shop Gosford fined $144k for illegal vapes, cigarettes
