Leeds Mama Mia convenience store owners avoid jail after being caught with thousands of packets of fake cigarette and a bag of £33,000 in cash

Ali Mohamad and Aram Mohammedie continued to sell counterfeit products from their shop in Leeds despite repeated warnings from authorities.

The pair had been told to expect jail sentences at a court hearing last month after their offending was described as a 'flagrant disregard' of the law.

The two men were convicted of trading standards offences at the Mama Mia store on Harehills Lane.The offending came to light on June 24, 2020.

A police community support officer on patrol in the area became suspicious after seeing a shop assistant hide something under the counter as he was serving a customer.

The officer spoke to the assistant and then asked for the owner to be contacted.

Mohammedie spoke to the officer but denied anything illegal was being sold at the shop.

The officer then noticed a bag of illegal tobacco products hanging behind the counter.

The shop was searched by West Yorkshire Police and 2,757 illegal packets of cigarettes and 496 pouches of hand rolling tobacco were recovered.

Some of the products contained false Regal, Richmond, Benson & Hedges and Amber Leaf trade marks.

All of the products either failed to display a health warning or contained a health warning in a foreign language.

The defendants continued to commit similar offences despite the initial "shot across the bows".

On November 23, 2020, West Yorkshire Trading Standards arranged for a test purchase to be made at the store.

Mohamad served a test purchaser with cigarettes bearing a false Richmond trade mark.

Officers returned to the store four days later and Mohamad was behind the counter with more illegal tobacco products.