Almost 200,000 ‘illicit’ cigarettes were seized by Trading Standards officers across Lancashire last year, almost five times the number confiscated six years ago.
And the number of people prosecuted for selling counterfeit and non-duty tobacco products has also rocketed, an investigation by The Gazette has found.
The price of cigarettes has almost doubled since smoking in public was banned ten years ago, from £5.33 to £9.91. Up to 88 per cent goes on excise duty and VAT, it was estimated.