Council slams illegal 'baccy

The motion, which was put to last Monday night’s September meeting of Council, by Cllr Robin Stirling and seconded by Cllr David Tweed, read: “Ballymena Borough Council expresses its condemndation of the prevalent vending of contraband cigarettes and tobacco in the cities and towns of Northern Ireland, including Ballymena.

“Those engaged in the unregulated sale of the illegal merchandise, at whatever level, are part of a sophisticated network of organised crime, leading to viiolence, a massive loss of revenue, the economic crippling of honest shopkeepers, the funding of terrorism and the systematic undermining of efforts to eradicate smoking in the young.

“Council calls upon all Members of the Stormont Assembly to appreciate how widespread this criminality has become and would urged the judiciary to respond with the appropriate severe penalties”.

Councillors also unanimously supported Cllr Stirling’s request that a copy of the motion be sent to the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister.

Commenting on the issue, Cllr Neil Armstrong said he believed “It goes behind tobacco products” to the trade in all contraband goods, much of which, he said, resulted in the operation of Third World sweat shops.

Cllr Declan O ‘Loan added: “This activity results in huge losses to the Exchequer of around 2bn a year of which if we had now would be very useful. It would save on budgetary cuts”.