Rocky Tobacconist closed after reports of suspicious activity

The Morning Bulletin published footage of suspicious activity at the Rockhampton store last week. See what has happened in the week since.

Rocky Tobacconist has been closed for the past week after reports the store was operating with suspicious activity.

This comes after The Morning Bulletin published a special investigation, revealing the Rockhampton store was selling cheap cigarette packets without government branding, loose leaf ‘chop chop’ tobacco, had no mandatory signage and had smoking products on display.

After receiving anonymous information about the alleged illegal activity, this publication reached out to various departments for comment on Monday, December 6, including Queensland Health, which handles smoking-related offences and regulations.

It is understood Queensland Health officers visited the store on Tuesday, December 16, only hours before the story about the store was published on Wednesday morning.

Queensland Health was unable to comment on specific details of the business but it is understood the business had a compliance check.

The attending Queensland Health Environmental Health Officers have the ability to issue individuals with warnings and on-the-spot fines, issue businesses with improvement notices, warnings and on-the-spot fines, initiate legal proceedings for breaches of smoking laws, respond to complaints, inspect premises and provide advice about the smoking laws.

Upon visiting the property late last week, the roller doors were down with no signage regarding a closure.

Multiple cars pulled up and some people walked up to the entry before realising it was closed.

Speaking to other businesses on the street, staff said they’d had a number of customers come in looking for the “cheap tobacco store”.

The store has not been seen open again and it is unclear if it has closed down.

It cannot be seen from the outside if there are any products still inside.

The property where the store was located is owned by a Chinese investment company registered to a Sydney address and is managed by a Sydney property management company.

The federal government introduced tobacco plain packaging laws in 2011 and selling products that do not have the governed packaging can result in a warning, infringement notice, civil penalty or criminal prosecution.

It is also against Queensland Government regulations to have tobacco and smoking related products on display.

The store had multiple glass cabinets with cigarette filters, papers and tubes and glass pipes.

Customers only paid cash at the store and there was no COVID-19 check in sign.