£55,000 in cash and tobacco seized from premises in Leyland by Lancashire Police and Trading Standards

Tobacco and cash worth a total of £55,000 has been seized in Leyland.

South Ribble Neighbourhood Police assisted Trading Standards this week with business visits in the town, and reported "positive results". They seized 1,611 packs of tobacco from a building behind a business where another 1,800 packs were seized only two months ago.

Officers also seized £5,000 cash connected to the selling of this tobacco. A prosecution file is underway so the name the business cannot be given.

"Access to cheap, fake products"

When challenged over the use of police resources on social media, police hit back. A spokesman said: "Taking away some people's access to cheap fake products isn’t always welcome. But this type of work is important because it promotes better health, and it deters smuggling, counterfeiting, tax avoidance, ASB, underage sales, and a range of other criminality around drugs supply, immigration, trafficking and slavery etc.

"The people who have commented about this not being as important as other crimes in the area are not seeing the bigger picture. Also Trading Standards take the lead so it means police are not tied up for long periods of time so it's a positive result all round."