Prosecutions see business owners pay for food safety and illegal tobacco offences

Two local business owners were successfully prosecuted last Thursday (5 March) at Barnsley Magistrates’ Court for selling potentially harmful products and putting people’s safety at risk.

Arman Imami, the owner of Delicii Mini Market, 152 Sheffield Road (S70 1JH), and Khalid Dyarie Mohamadi, the former owner of JD Mini Market, 46 Barnsley Road in Goldthorpe, both pleaded guilty to separate offences during last week’s hearings.

Mr Mohamadi was ordered to pay £3,029.79 in fines and costs after his business was found to be selling illegal tobacco products and vapes before it closed last August. This was the result of a closure order we successfully secured last August to stop further illicit activity taking place.

During a joint visit by Trading Standards Officers and South Yorkshire Police last March, sniffer dogs found a hidden concealment in the store containing 8,140 illegal cigarettes and 150 pouches of hand rolling tobacco that breached regulations.

The teams also found over 500 illegal single use e-cigarettes available for sale and displayed prominently in the shop, with all items being recovered to keep local people safe.

In a separate case, Mr Imami was ordered to pay £2,368.97 in fines and costs after his business was found to be repeatedly breaching important food labelling legislation.

During a routine visit to Delicii Mini Market in June 2023, Trading Standards Officers discovered they were selling food products that didn’t include the name and address of a UK business and didn’t meet legal labelling requirements, such as correct allergen information in English.

These rules are designed to protect people’s health and safety, allowing consumers to make informed decisions about ingredients that could cause them harm. Correct UK business information also helps to make sure potentially unsafe products are effectively recalled.

Despite repeated improvement notices from our Trading Standards team, follow-up visits found that food products continued to be sold that didn’t meet legal labelling requirements.

Trading Standards Officers also found that the business operated for two years without an up-to-date food business licence, meaning they weren’t legally registered to sell these products.

Together, the two cases saw almost £5,400 in penalties imposed for selling illicit products, breaching important regulations and failing to act on improvement notices. Both prosecutions also ordered for the disposal of all the seized non-compliant products.

These prosecutions are a fantastic result for our Trading Standards and Legal Services teams, showing how we’re committed to keeping communities safe from potentially harmful products.

Councillor Wendy Cain, Cabinet Spokesperson for Public Health and Communities, said:

We’re committed to keeping our communities safe, and this is a responsibility we take very seriously. Our teams do great work to keep unsafe food products off our shelves, tackle illegal tobacco in our borough and support businesses to understand their legal responsibilities.

"We’re here to help businesses to comply with the rules and make improvements, but these cases send a clear message that if you don’t follow legislation, we will take action to keep our residents safe. I would like to thank both our Trading Standards and Legal Services teams for everything they do to make sure we’re always putting people’s health and safety first.

Our Trading Standards team are here to help businesses understand their legal responsibilities and comply with the relevant safety standards.

If you run a local business and have any questions or need any advice about legislation, including correct food labelling, please get in touch by calling 01226 773743.