Our teams crack down on unsafe food and illegal tobacco with over £9,000 in fines and costs

Thanks to our Regulatory Services and Legal Services teams, two businesses were successfully prosecuted last Thursday after selling unsafe food and illegal tobacco.

Baron Store Ltd, trading from 22 High Street, Grimethorpe, was ordered to pay a total of £8,186.97 after pleading guilty to multiple offences under food labelling regulations.

Despite repeated advice, written warnings, and formal notices from our Trading Standards team, the business continued to sell food products with labelling issues – including products not labelled in English, lacking nutritional information in the UK format, and missing the details of a UK-based food operator.

Baron Store Ltd was ordered to pay a £5,000 fine, £2,000 victim surcharge, and costs of £1,186.97.

In a separate case, Bryar Raza Ahmed, of St James Street, Doncaster, was prosecuted for similar offences while operating JD Mini Market on Barnsley Road, Goldthorpe.

Despite being issued with written warnings and improvement notices over several months, Mr Ahmed failed to act on these. Inspections revealed food still on sale with non-compliant labelling, as well as a large quantity of illegal tobacco discovered concealed in the premises.

Mr Ahmed pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a 12-month community order including 300 hours of unpaid work, and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £114 and costs of £1,397.71 – totalling £1,511.71.

Together, the two cases saw over £9,600 in penalties imposed for repeated failures to follow regulations, act on improvement notices, and for putting public safety at risk. These are both great results for our Regulatory Services and Legal Services teams, who do fantastic work to keep our borough safe.

This enforcement activity follows recent work in the town centre, where our Wardens and Central Neighbourhood Policing Team recently identified and challenged two separate criminal groups involved in the sale of counterfeit goods. Counterfeit fragrances and electronic products were seized, and a warning issued by our Trading Standards team. Our wardens and policing teams will continue to take proactive action in challenging anyone they suspect to be selling stolen, counterfeit, or illegal goods – if you see anything suspicious or suspect a business or person might be trading illegally, you can report this to regulatoryservices@barnsley.gov.uk or by calling 01226 773743.

Cllr Wendy Cain, Cabinet Spokesperson for Public Health and Communities, said: “We’re committed to protecting Barnsley residents from harm – whether that’s through tackling unsafe food, counterfeit goods, or illicit tobacco. Our teams are here to support businesses to comply with laws and regulations, but these cases send a clear message: if you trade illegally and continue to do so when warned by our team, we will take action.”

If you have any questions or need any advice in relation to food labelling, you can contact the team by emailing regulatoryservices@barnsley.gov.uk or calling 01226 773743.

Businesses that sell food products have a responsibility to make sure the food they are selling is safe. Food products from other countries can be sold to other businesses without being fully relabelled. However, before these products can be sold to customers, a UK company must check the ingredients are UK safe and legal, and put their name and address on the product in case of any issues. You can find out more about food labelling and regulations on our website.