Illegal vapes dealer ordered to pay £300k after major probe

A Swansea shopkeeper jailed for running an illegal vapes business has been ordered to hand over £300,000 in proceeds of crime payments.

Kashif Iqbal, 48, of Jersey Road, Bonymaen, was selling vapes containing enough liquid for up to 4,000 “puffs” from his Rebel Vapes shop in Morriston, while legal vapes typically offer around 600 puffs.

Swansea Crown Court heard that Swansea Council trading standards officers carried out a series of visits and test purchases at the shop during 2022, seizing hundreds of illegal vapes.

In July 2023, Iqbal was found at a storage unit containing more than 90 boxes of illegal vapes, with a further 27 boxes discovered in his van. Each box contained 160 vapes. The total value of vapes sold by and seized from the defendant was estimated to be £500,000.

In January last year, Iqbal was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison after pleading guilty to participating in a fraudulent business. Judge Catherine Richards said the defendant had been involved in selling “thousands” of illegal and unregulated vapes to customers including, on at least one occasion, to a child.

The case returned to court this month for a proceeds of crime hearing. The court heard that Iqbal had benefited from his criminal conduct to the tune of £400,000, with £300,000 identified in available assets. These assets include cash seized during the investigation, £24,080 in a business bank account, equity in a Winch Wen property wholly owned by the defendant, and £110,815 in equity in his Jersey Road home which is in his wife’s name. Iqbal has been given three months to pay.

The prosecution of Iqbal led Swansea Council to uncover a multi-million pound operation supplying illegal vapes to shops around the UK. In February 2024, trading standards officers – with assistance from the Met Police – executed a search warrant at Buddha Vapes premises on Bridge Street in Southall, west London.

Police found a huge quantity of illegal vapes, some with liquid tanks as big as 20ml – legal vapes are permitted to have tanks of no more than 2ml – and offering up to 15,000 “puffs” compared to the 600 or 700 puffs of legal devices. Many of the illegal vapes originated in China.

The court heard it was clear from evidence gathered by Swansea Council that the London firm had been supplying vapes on a “staggering” scale to shops around the country and was a “multi-million pound illegal business”.