Man Caught With Contraband Booze, Cigarettes

Bandar Seri Begawan - A forty-nine-year-old local fathering 22 children and living on Baitul Mal (government financial aid) was caught red handed for possession of booze and cigarettes where he was fined yesterday by the Bandar Magistrate's Court $6,000 or in default of payment serve jail for four months.

Ahmad bin Hj Othman pleaded guilty to the charge in which he was caught at the roundabout in Kuala Lurah near the Shell- filling station in possession of five bottles of Carlsberg beer, three cans of Tiger beer, two bottles of Tiger beer, a bottle of scotch whisky, three bottles of Smirnoff vodka, 10 packs of Win Mild Minti Ceta cigarettes and five cartons of D-Gi Menthol cigarettes on July 6, 2010 at about 5.48pm.

The defendant was in his Honda Jazz car with his wife, his two sons and his granddaughter.

The court also heard that the defendant is unemployed and relies on financial aid of Baitul Mal of which he receives $1,900 a month for a period of one year.

It was a grocery shopping outing with the family for the defendant in Limbang and when they came back, Customs Preventive officers stopped the vehicle.

Group Wants Tax Hike on Cigarettes

A new statewide group is calling for a cigarette tax hike and policy experts say Nevada could see $85 million in one year if the hike is approved.

Smokers could be looking at paying an extra $1.20 to smoke a pack of cigarettes. The Health Investment Partnership, or HIP, is a coalition of people and organizations in the public and private health sectors. HIP introduced a new study Tuesday detailing how a health impact fee would dramatically lower the state deficit, decrease the burden of health care costs, and ultimately save lives.

"We estimate that over 16,000 adults would quit smoking in response to the price increase. Over 20,000 kids would be deterred from taking up smoking and in the long run, it would save the state over a half a billion dollars on healthcare costs from smoking," said economic policy expert Frank Chaloupka.

The suggested $1.20 health impact fee would apply to all other tobacco products, not just cigarettes. HIP is calling on lawmakers to adopt the fee and allow it to rise with inflation. The group believes teenagers would benefit the most by increasing the cost of a pack of cigarettes.

"You're starting to take that out of the range of a lot of teenagers," said Dr. John Ruckdeschel, CEO of the Nevada Cancer Institute. "The cigarette costs keep going up and up and they can't do the other things they want to do. After a while, some of them get the idea and stop."

Right now, the state cigarette tax on one pack is 80 cents, which is lower than most states. HIP says tobacco users are costing Nevada more than a $500 million a year in healthcare costs.

Cigarette haul gang charged

EIGHT men have been charged over the theft of a £1.1m haul of cigarettes from Southamp-ton docks.

A gang used a stolen lorry and trailer to take 300,000 packets of American Legend cigarettes on June 7.

Six men have been charged with conspiracy to steal the cigarettes, and the lorry and trailer.

The gang – James Kelleher, 42, from Maldon, Essex; Stephen Pink, 49, from Colchester, Essex; Mark Juniper, 28, from Ashford, Kent; Kevin Burgess, 51, from Sheerness, Kent; Mark Ball, 51, from Sheerness, Kent; and Andrew Badland, 30, from Dagenham, Essex – have been bailed to appear at Southampton Magistrates’ Court on January 7.

Another two men – Alan Hunt, 50, and Sean Ripley, 40, both from Norwich – have been charged with possession of criminal property. They have been bailed and will appear before magstrates on January 6.

Cigarettes, Alcohol Get Thumbs Up In Port Aransas

The Port Aransas City Council discussed a proposed smoking ban for bars and restaurants at Wednesday night's meeting.

Councilman Keith Donley made the suggestion after he received complaints about second-hand smoke, but after discussing the matter the council voted 4-to-3 not to move forward with the ban.

We're told that as of now, the council doesn't have any plans to peruse the ideal any further.

At the same meeting, the council also voted unanimously to allow alcohol at Sandfest in 2011.

In previous years, visitors were not allowed to bring alcohol, and it wasn't sold on-site.

Organizers of of the 2011 event say they will set up a beer tent to see how it goes.

‘Man of mystery’ had illegal cigarettes

A 29-year-old Chinese man who was detected with 18,600 Chinese cigarettes in his business premises, with no duty paid on them, was sentenced to three months in prison.

Castlebar District Court heard that on May 20 2009, gardaí and a member of Revenue entered the Phone Station, Thomas Street, Castlebar— a repair and unlocking phone service. Chang Wu Yu, with a listed address at the Phone Station, Thomas Street, was the proprietor.

Gardaí had a warrant to search for stolen property, nothing was found in relation to this, however 15,000 cigarettes were found in a suitcase in a room above the premises, while 3,000 more cigarettes were found under a counter in the business premises. Three main brands of cigarettes were discovered during the search, which were then seized.

Detective Garda Declan Sweeney said that he was made aware that cigarettes were being illegally sold on the premises. In a statement made to Garda Sweeney, the defendant said that he never sold cigarettes and that the cigarettes belong to his partner and his friends. When interviewed by Revenue Officer, Sean Fitzgerald, without the use of the interpreter, Yu told him that he sold the cigarettes for €7 for 20. This was denied in court.

Yu, who has been in Ireland for seven years, had a student visa and lives with his partner and three children.

The defendant, through the services of a translator, told the court that the cigarettes came from China, however they were not for sale, but were gifts for guests who were to attend a wedding to his partner, which was to take place in December, but which did not occur.

It transpired that even though the defendant claimed he has little English that he has registered for a business course in Dublin which is taught through English.

Judge Mary Devins said that the “credibility of the accused is almost zero” and the judge said that Yu is “a man of mystery”.

Judge Devins convicted and fined him €1,000 and sentenced him to three months in prison. The judge also directed the forfeiture of cigarettes to the State. Recognisance was fixed.

Feds cracking down on flavoured tobacco

The government's trying to close loopholes that allow cigar makers to continue producing the flavoured cigarillos that are popular with teen smokers, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said Thursday.

In response to a question by NDP health critic Megan Leslie, Aglukkaq said Health Canada officials are taking another look at the current rules for cigarillos, which were updated last summer.

“We're investigating that (closing the loopholes), yes ... I would love to make an announcement on that,” Aglukkaq said.

“This is a moving target, as you know.”

The Tories promised during the 2008 election to change the law to make cigarillos less enticing to teens.

The new rules took effect last July, banning companies from adding flavouring to small cigars with 1.4g of tobacco or less, as well as the ones with filters and the ones sold as singles.

Manufacturers changed the size slightly and removed filters in some cases, allowing them to continue selling the flavoured product.

Cigar makers argue the flavoured product is popular with adults too and that teens use far more unflavoured tobacco products than they do flavoured.

Aglukkaq also told the House health committee she put cigarette labelling changes on hold so her department can consider whether they're the most effective way to reach smokers.

“I don't think there's anything wrong with taking a step back to re-examine whether we are making the investment in the right place,” as part of a prevention strategy, she said.

Aglukkaq said more people are smoking contraband cigarettes, which come in plastic bags and don't have warning labels, and that the department's trying to use social media like Facebook and Twitter to get its message out.

Spain plans tobacco tax hike to cut deficit-source

Spain's government is planning to raise tobacco taxes, a government source said on Friday, as it fights to cut its high budget deficit and calm investor concerns that it could need a financial bailout like Ireland and Greece.

Proposals for such new austerity measures come just over a week after Spain's prime minister insisted it would not need a new round of cuts, and said those betting the country would end up going the same way as Dublin or Athens would lose.

The source, who asked not to be named, did not comment on newspaper reports that the government is also mulling higher taxes on fuel and alcohol.

The new tobacco tax to raise an estimated 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) a year in revenue could be announced as early as Friday after Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's weekly cabinet meeting, newspapers reported.

The cabinet meeting is expected to approve other measures announced by Zapatero this week involving the sell-off of parts of its airport and lottery businesses to raise funds.

Spain's cost of financing has risen to record highs in recent days on fears it could end up needing a bailout like Greece or Ireland, throwing the euro currency deeper into crisis.

But the yield on benchmark Spanish 10-year bonds ES10YT=TWEB was lower on Friday, at 5.1 percent, as the European Central Bank said its bond-buying programme has been energetic this week [ID:nFAE005845].

Economy Minister Elena Salgado told BBC radio on Friday that the euro zone could not exit its current crisis unless its members adopted common economic policies, a controversial idea not shared by all the currency zone's leaders. [ID:nLDE6B208U]

"We have to improve economic governance in Europe. You cannot have in the long term a common currency without a common economic policy," she said in an interview.