NEARLY 100,000 illegal cigarettes were found stashed inside a secret counter compartment, behind a false stock room wall and inside crates of soft drinks, when police and trading standards raided a Hereford shop.

Hereford Magistrates heard that the haul of non-duty paid, smuggled, and fake foreign labelled cigarettes seized at European Fresh Foods, Eign Gate, was worth around £13,000 at street value.

Retailer Mohammed Bakhtyer admitted having the illicit tobacco to sell to receive a four month suspended prison sentence. He was also ordered to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work and pay £1,169 in costs.

All the seized cigarettes will be destroyed.

The court heard that during the raid, earlier this year, the cigarettes were initially uncovered as hidden in a secret compartment under the shop counter and inside crates of soft drinks.

But the finding of a false wall built into the shop's stock room revealed a further 4,000 packets for sale.

Speaking after the case, Mike Pigrem, Herefordshire Council’s head of trading standards and licensing, said the cigarettes found were of “dubious” quality with the potential to cause health problems potentially far worse than smoking legal tobacco.