Brisbane tobacco shops raided and slapped with ‘interim closure order’

Five tobacco shops have been raided and four slapped with an “interim closure order” for “reasonable suspicion” of involvement with illicit tobacco or nicotine products.

A sign on the front of the raided tobacco store.

Five tobacco shops have been raided in Brisbane’s south with four being forced closed with an “interim closure” order.

Metro South Health Acting Director for Environmental Health Sofie Sandberg confirmed to The Courier-Mail that five tobacco shops had been raided in West End on Tuesday.

“Metro South Health’s Environmental Health team have issued interim closure orders to four tobacco retailers located in West End under the Tobacco and Other Smoking Products Act 1998 (TOSPA),” she said.

“The closures in collaboration with the Queensland Police Service were in response to the continued supply of illicit tobacco and vaping devices by the tobacco retailers after numerous inspections identified breaches under the Tobacco and Other Smoking Products Act (1998) including being unlicensed.

“Despite numerous attempts by Environmental Health Officers to work with the businesses identified breaches have continued and resulted in enforcement actions including seizures of illicit products.”

An interim closure order prevents the retailer from trading for 72 hours after being served the order.

Trading during an interim closure order would result in a serious breach to the occupier and employee on shift with a court proceeding to the maximum penalty of $322,600.

Ms Sandberg said the total number and value of the seized Illicit tobacco and vaping products was still being tallied.

One of the four tobacco shops forced shut included

A1 Convenience Store at Vulture Street, West End. A sign on the front door showed the store was forced closed with an “interim closure order”

“The sign read “As a delegate of the Chief Executive of Queensland Health under Section 209A of the Tobacco and Other Smoking Products Act 1998, I reasonably suspect that,” it said.

“Illicit tobacco or illicit nicotine products have been, or are likely to be, supplied at the premises as part of a business activity.”

The business was approached for comment.