Oxford shop fined over £17,500 for selling illegal products
December 3, 2025
Concealment identified on 16 March 2025 at Khalifa Supermarket on Cowley Road, Oxford (Photo: Oxfordshire County Council)
A company and its former director have been fined for illegal tobacco and nicotine product offences following an investigation by Oxfordshire County Council’s trading standards team.
Yadgar Ghafour, 38, of Phillip Street, Chester, former owner and director of Khalifa Super Store Ltd of 120 Cowley Road, Oxford pleaded guilty to all offences at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on 28 November and was ordered to pay £3,907.24 in fines and costs.
The current owner and director, Muhemed Hussain, 54, also pleaded guilty to all offences on behalf of the company, which must pay £17,616.24 in fines and costs.
The court heard that trading standards officers inspected the premises on 1 May 2024, seizing 160 cigarettes, 35 packs of shisha tobacco, 865 vapes and 122 unit packs of nicotine pouches. The vapes and shisha were found by a detection dog in compartments sealed with electromagnets, which officers had to force open.
Most of the nicotine pouches were not labelled in English, the tobacco products were smuggled, and the vapes contained up to nine times the permitted 2ml nicotine liquid capacity.
The director at the time, Marewan Salh, 51, of Ridgeway Avenue, Derby has been ordered to pay £2,000 in fines and costs at an earlier hearing.
The company was then purchased by Mr Ghafour on 26 June 2024, and on 21 January 2025 officers inspected the premises again. They seized 121 unit packs of nicotine pouches that were either labelled in a language other than English or that did not have the required safety labelling information.
Following two covert test purchases, officers inspected the premises again on 16 March 2025 when a further concealment was discovered built into the shelving units. Inside was 214 vapes of 10ml capacity and 125 vapes of 20ml capacity, 10 times the allowed limit.
Smuggled waterpipe tobacco was also identified and seized.
The current owner and sole director of Khalifa Super Store Ltd, Mr Hussain, purchased the Company from Mr Ghafour on 21 March 2025. The shop now trades as Khalifa Supermarket from the same address.
Councillor Jenny Hannaby, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Community Safety said: “I am pleased that our trading standards team has once again been able to remove illegal tobacco, nicotine pouches and vape products from our high streets. The work of our officers is vital for protecting residents and holding individuals and businesses accountable.”
Jody Kerman, Oxfordshire County Council’s Head of Prevention, Protection and Trading Standards, added: “We support honest businesses and do all we can to ensure the health, wellbeing and safety of all residents and visitors in the county. Our dedicated trading standards team acts swiftly and diligently against those who flagrantly flout the law. And, rest assured, it will continue to do so.”
