Supplementary memorandum submitted by
Imperial Tobacco Group PLC
ILLEGAL UK COUNTERFEIT TOBACCO MANUFACTURING
OPERATIONS
At the Treasury Sub-committee meeting on 12
January 2005, Mr McFall asked if Imperial Tobacco would provide
a paper on counterfeit tobacco operations in the UK market.
Imperial Tobacco is the only tobacco manufacturer
which has a dedicated team employed to disrupt the retail sale
of illegal product, including counterfeit, in the UK market. As
such, we work very closely with HM Customs and Excise in identifying
any sources of counterfeit production in the UK.
Our first experience of the counterfeiting of
tobacco products in the UK occurred in late 2000 and, to date,
Imperial Tobacco is aware of a total of six UK counterfeit production
locations, all of which have been successfully raided by HM Customs
and Excise. A summary of these counterfeit operations is as follows:
| Date of HMC&E Raid
| Brand Counterfeited | UK Location
|
| | |
| Late 2000 | "Modern" cigarettes
| Birmingham |
| November 2001 | "Drum" handrolling tobacco
| Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Coventry |
| December 2001 | "Golden Virginia" handrolling tobacco
| Glasgow |
| February 2002 | "Drum" handrolling tobacco
| Private House, Houghton le Spring |
| October 2002 | "Golden Virginia" handrolling tobacco
| Private House, Hounslow, London |
| May 2003 | "Golden Virginia" handrolling tobacco
| Kilmarnock |
January 2005
|
