Oxford Street candy store had £55k of illegal sweets and vapes

By Adrian Zorzut, Local Democracy Reporter

Illegal vapes and banned American sweets worth a total of £55,000 have been seized from a candy store in Oxford Street.

Westminster city council said officers recovered more than 2,000 items on Wednesday, including supersized vapes, fake designer phone covers and electrical equipment missing UK safety stickers.

Officers also found US sweets like Swedish Fish and Hot Tamales, which contain ingredients like mineral oil, bleached flour or colourants, which have known links to hyperactivity and cancer in children and are banned in the UK, according to the Chartered Trading Standards Institute.

The haul included disposable vapes with twice the legal amount of nicotine, the council said.

Adam Hug, leader of Westminster city council, said: “This significant haul from just one shop shows the scale of the problem we face. Suspected illegal goods continue to flood into the country and central London.

“As a council, we do what we can to make life difficult for unscrupulous traders through enforcement action and pressure on landlords. On the wider stage, we are also campaigning for changes to company registration to make it harder for dirty money to circulate in London.”

Councillor Hug added: “We are dealing with people who are quite prepared to peddle excessively strong vapes and banned sweets to children. But more trading standards raids are on the way in the coming weeks, so anyone who thinks they can drag down the reputation of Oxford Street with this tawdry trade can think again”

Trading Standards officers said increased enforcement action had prompted many stores selling vapes to make their produce less prominent in shop windows.

Pictured top: Westminster city council trading standards officers inspecting goods on sale at a store (Picture: Westminster city council)