More than 700,000 illicit cigarettes and almost 11,000 illegal vapes were seized during Trading Standards visits across Nottinghamshire in 2025/26, a council report reveals.
Officers also seized 140kg of illicit hand-rolling tobacco and £71,428 in cash associated with illegal activity during 90 targeted visits. The report puts the total value of the seizures at £729,919.
The figures form part of a wider account of work tackling rogue builders, roofing scams, livestock theft and fraud, alongside efforts to protect vulnerable residents from repeat scams.
Nottinghamshire County Council’s Place Select Committee will consider the report on 16 September. Members are being asked to comment on the service’s work, rather than approve a new enforcement scheme or additional spending.
The report sets out responsibilities covering around 300 pieces of legislation, from unsafe products and food standards to animal health and fireworks.
During 2025/26, work against illicit tobacco and illegal vapes resulted in 33 warning letters and 21 prosecutions. Premises found selling illegal products continue to be monitored.
Officers found goods concealed in purpose-built hiding places inside shops, nearby vehicles and residential premises above retail units. Specialist detection dogs are sometimes used to find hidden stock.
The report says some businesses maintain only a small amount of legitimate stock as cover for illegal sales, while changes in ownership and staffing can make enforcement more difficult. People selling the products may themselves be vulnerable to exploitation.
Public Health funds a dedicated investigator and a police officer shared with Nottingham City Trading Standards to support this work. It also funds a separate investigator to carry out test purchases checking whether businesses sell age-restricted products, particularly tobacco, alcohol and vapes, to children.
Examples of enforcement include the seizure of 1,244 illicit vapes valued at £13,500 in Sutton in Ashfield, where a prosecution resulted in a £4,000 fine and £1,600 costs.
In Newark, a case involving 681 illicit vapes resulted in a £961 fine and £1,349 costs. A Hucknall case involving 249 illicit vapes and 337 packets of illicit cigarettes led to a requirement to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and pay £1,482 costs.
The report also highlights the financial damage caused by rogue building work, and the difficulty of recovering money for victims even after a successful prosecution.
Three separate building fraud cases brought by the county service involved total victim losses of £275,490. They included a Hucknall-area builder who made false representations about planning applications and architectural plans, a Nottingham-based builder who took advance payments but failed to complete work, and a case involving the deliberate targeting of vulnerable adults.
The cases resulted in prison sentences of three years and 40 months, and a two-year suspended sentence with 200 hours of unpaid work.
Financial investigations found that none of the three defendants had money available to repay their victims. Their finances can be revisited if they acquire money in future.
Alongside its county responsibilities, the council hosts the National Trading Standards Regional Investigation Team for the East Midlands. It handles serious and complex cases crossing council boundaries, including fraud affecting victims elsewhere in the country.
One investigation, Operation Kiwi, concerned an organised group targeting elderly and vulnerable people through rogue roofing work. The report records losses exceeding £133,000 and attempts to obtain more than £208,000 from seven victims.
Eight offenders were sentenced in December 2025. The principal offender received an immediate prison sentence of six years and four months, including a sentence for breaching a Criminal Behaviour Order. The remaining offenders received suspended sentences.
Proceedings to identify and recover criminal assets remain ongoing.
The report also updates earlier investigations, showing how financial recovery work can continue years after convictions.
Operation Mallard concerned the mis-selling of home improvement and energy-saving products by a business judged to have defrauded victims of £10.5 million. Six offenders were convicted in 2023.
Confiscation proceedings concluded in September 2025, recovering £243,475 from identified assets. The report says all the money recovered was used to compensate victims, with scope to pursue further assets if they are discovered.
The service’s animal health work also contributed to the prosecution of a livestock thief operating at markets across the country, including the former Newark livestock market. The offender received a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence.
The report explains that livestock identification and movement checks help protect the food chain, including against disease risks and the possibility of medicated meat entering the supply.
Preventing fraud before residents lose money is another part of the service’s work. Officers provided fraud prevention advice and support to 69 residents during the last financial year.
Since 2014, the service has maintained a small stock of call-blocking devices, with 35 installed in residents’ homes. These have blocked an estimated 45,691 nuisance calls.
The council estimates that, over their lifetime, the devices will have prevented 74 scams and saved vulnerable households £219,005.
However, the report warns that doorstep crime investigations are increasingly complicated, with offenders operating across boundaries and using tactics to avoid identification. Lengthy investigations and legal costs limit how many complex cases the service can handle at once.
Court delays can mean trials take years to begin. The report says some older witnesses have died before their cases reached court, while postponed hearings create additional work and costs for the council.
Trading Standards has a gross expenditure budget of £2.333 million for 2026/27, offset by budgeted income of £1.089 million, leaving a net expenditure budget of £1.244 million.
No new financial commitments are proposed in the report. It says the implications of local government reorganisation will be considered as proposals develop, with effective arrangements still needed to deliver the service’s statutory responsibilities.
