Loughborough Vape Shop Owner Convicted After Ignoring Three Warnings

A Loughborough shop owner has been convicted of 11 offences involving the sale of illegal nicotine products and counterfeit tobacco — after he continued trading in illicit goods despite receiving three separate warnings from Trading Standards officers over the course of eight months.

Gold Town, Swan Street: The Full Picture

Hassan Sadaghat, operator of Gold Town at 17 Swan Street in Loughborough, appeared at Leicester Magistrates’ Court on 2 April 2026 and pleaded guilty to all 11 charges. He was handed a 12-month community order requiring 120 hours of unpaid work, disqualified from holding any company directorship for three years, and ordered to pay a £114 victim surcharge. His company, Gold Town Loughborough Ltd, was separately fined £5,000, ordered to pay a further £5,000 towards prosecution costs, and hit with a £114 victim surcharge of its own.

The case is the fourth successful prosecution under Operation Hind — a county-wide enforcement initiative run jointly by Leicestershire County Council Trading Standards and Leicestershire Police, targeting the sale of illegal vapes, counterfeit cigarettes and illicit tobacco across the county.

Trading Standards officers first visited Gold Town on 15 April 2025, seizing 14 illegal e-cigarettes, seven packets of illegal cigarettes and 59 packets of herbal tobacco. Sadaghat was given a warning and provided with advice on age-restricted sales. Officers returned on 23 July and found further illicit goods — including items believed to contain THC, the psychoactive substance found in cannabis. A further warning and advice visit followed on 19 September.

Readers following Loughborough crime stories will know the town has seen a string of enforcement actions in recent months — but this one stands out for the sheer persistence of the offending in the face of official intervention.

Between 23 October and 4 December 2025, officers conducted five undercover test purchases at the shop, during which they were sold cigarettes and rolling tobacco that proved to be either counterfeit or illegal for sale in the UK market. Following the final test purchase on 4 December, Trading Standards and Leicestershire Police carried out a joint enforcement visit. Officers found a hidden storage compartment above the toilet door packed with illegal cigarettes and rolling tobacco. Sadaghat was also found in possession of a small black bag containing six further packets of cigarettes. In total, more than 150 illegal tobacco products were seized — not one of which carried the correct UK packaging or legally required health warnings.

Gary Connors, head of regulatory services at Leicestershire County Council, said: “This case demonstrates a blatant and repeated disregard for the law, even after multiple warnings and clear advice from our officers. The sheer volume of illegal and counterfeit products found shows exactly why prosecutions like this are so necessary. Operation Hind continues to deliver strong results across Leicestershire, disrupting the sale of unsafe and illicit vapes and tobacco and protecting both consumers and honest businesses. We will not hesitate to take firm action against those who persist in putting the public at risk.”

What’s Actually in Those Illegal Vapes

Operation Hind has now secured four convictions since it launched in November 2025. Previous prosecutions include Mohammed Nabi of Hinckley (120 hours unpaid work, 17 counts), shop worker Aryas Salehi at Go Vape in Church Gate, Loughborough (54 hours unpaid work), and Farhad Rasuli at Hinckley International Store (135 hours unpaid work, 15 counts — with a hidden electromagnetic-operated cupboard found containing cigarettes and vapes during the raid).

The health stakes go well beyond counterfeit branding. Previous scientific testing of illegal vapes seized in the UK has identified arsenic, lead, formaldehyde, cadmium, copper and nickel in unregulated products. University of Derby research found that some illegal vapes contained nicotine levels equivalent to smoking 200 cigarettes. Vapes seized in the Hinckley case contained up to five times the legal limit of nicotine liquid. These are not simply the same products in unlabelled packaging. They are genuinely unknown quantities being inhaled by people who believe they are buying something regulated.

The scale of the problem in Leicestershire is significant. The county’s Trading Standards team contacted roughly 400 independent vape sellers ahead of the single-use vape ban that came into force in June 2025. National data shows that nine per cent of 11-to-15-year-olds are now using vapes — triple the figure from three years ago.

Three Warnings, and He Kept Going Anyway

Here is what makes the Gold Town case different from a routine prosecution: Hassan Sadaghat was not caught once and punished. He was warned three times across eight months — in April, July and September 2025 — and he kept going. Not quietly, not cautiously, but persistently enough that officers felt they needed to carry out five separate undercover test purchases before going to court. And when they finally raided the premises, they found more than 150 illegal products stashed behind a hidden compartment above the toilet door.

That is not an oversight. That is a calculated business decision — that the risk of getting caught was worth the profit from selling counterfeit tobacco and illegal vapes to whoever walked through the door. And the customers walking through that door in Loughborough town centre may well have included teenagers, given that the initial warning in April 2025 specifically covered advice on age-restricted sales.

The sentence — a community order, 120 hours of unpaid work and a directorship ban — reflects what the magistrates were able to hand down for 11 guilty pleas at this level. But it is worth asking whether it sends a strong enough deterrent signal. Operation Hind’s other prosecutions have followed a similar pattern: community orders, unpaid work, fines. No custodial sentences yet in this operation, though Trading Standards has noted that a recent case elsewhere in the country resulted in a custodial sentence for repeat offending of this kind.

Leicestershire has roughly 400 independent vape sellers across the county. Trading Standards, working with Leicestershire Police, cannot physically inspect all of them regularly. Operation Hind depends heavily on intelligence from residents — people who see something that doesn’t look right and pick up the phone. If you suspect a shop near you is selling illegal vapes or counterfeit tobacco, you can report it anonymously to the Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 0808 223 1133. That phone call could be what triggers the next visit — and potentially protects someone’s child from inhaling a product laced with arsenic.

We’ll keep tracking Operation Hind’s progress across Leicestershire. Four convictions in five months is a decent start. The question is whether it’s enough to shift the calculations being made in the back rooms of shops like Gold Town.

Have Your Say

Have you seen illegal vapes being sold near you in Loughborough or elsewhere in Leicestershire? You can report it anonymously on 0808 223 1133 — your tip could protect young people in your community. Leave a comment below, and sign up for our free local news updates to stay across this story as Operation Hind continues.