Fratton businessman guilty of peddling fake cigarettes and money laundering after huge trading standards bust

Ali Kader Ismil, of Maxstoke Close, Somers Town, was convicted at Portsmouth Crown Court on April 22. A total of 75,020 illicit smoking items, valued in excess of £40,000, were seized from Fratton Food Stores across four operations and three test purchases from trading standards officers.

Ismil was found guilty of 14 counts of possession and supply of fake branded cigarettes, as well as smuggling non-UK cigarettes and unregulated black market items. called "cheap whites".

He was additionally convicted of one count of money laundering. Officers, employed by Portsmouth City Council, carried out the operation between March 2019 and November 2021. They also confiscated £3,575 and £5,000 in cash hidden under the till on two separate occasions in 2019 and 2021 - later linked to the sale of counterfeit cigarettes. These items can often have dangerously high levels of noxious carcinogens and heavy metals, with legal products being under tight regulation.

Ismil was the manager and later owner of Fratton Food Stores. He stood trial on his own but was convicted alongside Salar Karim Karam, former owner of Fratton Food Stores and Eakub Ali. Karam and Ali pleaded guilty to other offences at a previous hearing.

All three men are due to be sentenced at Portsmouth Crown Court on June 21.