Leigh man accused of having 23,000 bogus postage stamps

Chaudhary Rahman, also faces six charges relating to bogus or incorrect tobacco product packaging and suspect e-cigarettes.

The 41-year-old, of Wigan Road in Leigh, appeared before borough justices to be accused of “having in your custody or under your control an instrument, to which section 5 of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 applied, namely 23,625 United Kingdom postage stamps.”

The charge alleges the stamps were fake, that he knew this and that he or someone else would pass them off as genuine to others.

Rahman is accused of selling what looked like 217 packs of Richmond king-size and 170 Lambert and Butler cigarettes but were not – breaches of the 1994 Trades Marks Act.

It is also alleged that he sold hundreds of cigarettes whose boxes did not comply with the 2015 Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations; e-cigarettes without batch numbers and which exceeded this country’s tank volume limit of 2ml; and both tobacco and cigarettes whose health warnings were in a foreign language, breaching the the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations of 2016.

Rahman has yet to enter pleas. He was released on unconditional bail until he returns to Wigan Magistrates’ Court on September 20 for a further hearing.