Northampton shop stripped of alcohol licence after hundreds of illegal cigarettes and vapes found
A Northampton shop has been stripped of its licence to sell alcohol after hundreds of illegal cigarettes and vapes were found on site.
The Euro Star Minimarket at 202 Wellingborough Road was first visited by the council’s trading standards officers working with Northamptonshire Police in March, when a test purchase saw a packet of cigarettes sold for £4.
During another visit later that day, officers saw a male going to and from the premises to a white VW parked outside. They intervened and found more than 500 packets of illicit cigarettes and 83 pouches of hand rolling tobacco on the rear seat. A further 198 illegal vapes were found behind the shop counter.
Northamptonshire Police later requested that West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) review the shop’s licence on the grounds of failure to prevent crime and disorder.
A licensing panel convened on August 17 to decide whether the store should retain its licence, which allowed alcohol sales seven days a week from 8am to 11pm. The licence had already been suspended due to non-payment of annual fees.
Councillors heard that trading standards returned in June 2026, when a test purchase was made of a packet of Esse cigarettes for £5. The cigarettes were identified as cheap whites and illegal to sell in the UK.
A further search that day found an empty concealed storage area at the rear of the store, but no illicit items.
Police estimated the cigarettes seized during the first raid would have had a legitimate retail value of around £11,458.
These included 146 packets of counterfeit cigarettes in non-standardised packaging, 108 foreign-labelled packets on which no duty had been paid, 266 cheap whites and 83 counterfeit pouches of tobacco.
Accounts of the trading standards visits were relayed to the licensing committee by Northamptonshire Police’s alcohol licensing officer.
No representation was made by Euro Star Minimarket at the hearing. The licensing authority said it had attempted to contact premises licence holder Ilze Kadere, but she had not responded to its communications.
The licensing sub-committee resolved to revoke the premises licence.