Vape shops that flout the law are being shut by the courts at a rate of four a week, according to new data obtained by the Daily Mail. Trading Standards departments can request magistrates to grant closure orders for up to three months when stores are found guilty of under-age sales or selling products containing excessive or undeclared nicotine.
FOI Requests Reveal Scale of Enforcement
The Daily Mail sent Freedom of Information requests to Trading Standards departments across the country. Of the 96 that responded—about half—orders were obtained against 102 shops last year. This equates to around 200 a year, or four a week, assuming the same pattern from departments that did not reply.
Regional Hotspots for Closures
The most active authority for closures was the Heart of South West Trading Standards area, which includes Devon and Somerset. It obtained orders closing 13 vape stores last year. In Newcastle, 12 stores were shut, while 11 Swansea stores were closed.
Among them was World Vape Shop, which was shut down in September. Officers returned after it re-opened in January and found illegal vapes and tobacco worth more than £40,000.
Court Cases and Sentencing
Earlier this month, shopworker Many Shahabi Kirimi, 23, pleaded guilty at Newport Crown Court to fraud, trademark, and tobacco regulation offences. The Iranian national, who entered the UK illegally in 2021 and has previous convictions for similar offences, was jailed for two years. Judge Geraint Walters said: 'The sale of counterfeit cigarettes and illegal vapes is becoming a scourge within our communities.'
Yellow Express in Braintree, Essex, was closed down for three months after selling illegal tobacco and vapes to children. A repeat-offender, the Yellow Express shop in Witham, Essex, was ordered to close after Trading Standards carried out 'multiple seizures of illicit tobacco and non-compliant vapes in significant quantities'.
Wider Enforcement Figures
Half of local authorities that replied to the Daily Mail revealed they had issued 1,180 warnings, cautions, or fixed penalty notices to vape shops last year. A total of 433 shops failed under-age vape test purchases, and 98 were prosecuted for illegal vape sales. The true figures are likely to be double that when the authorities that did not respond are taken into account.
Challenges for Trading Standards
The findings also show the struggles of Trading Standards departments, such as the Dorset watchdog that did not carry out any under-age vape test purchases in 2025. John Herriman, chief executive of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, has called on the Home Office to urgently review the powers and resources available to Trading Standards officers.
