Evapo boss calls for bigger fines on shops selling illegal vapes

As vapes become more widely available, the prominence of a "black market" selling illicit goods with potentially harmful side effects to customers has grown.

That is the concern of Evapo CEO Andrej Kuttruf who recently expanded his vaping business to Blue Boar Row in Salisbury.

Several recently-opened shops have been caught selling illegally-sized vapes and three of them were raided by Trading Standards on Friday, November 10.

Read more: Journal investigates huge amount of illegal vapes seized from shops in Salisbury

Mr Kuttruf said because these products are illicit they do not go through the appropriate quality assurance tests that his vapes are required to pass.

Evapo CEO Andrej Kuttruf is calling for action. (Image: Evapo)

Safe vapes must be approved by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency before retailers are given an ECID number and are able to sell them.

Mr Kuttruf said: "Customers don't know what they are buying because the products haven't gone through testing. The suppliers are cutting corners and who knows what's in these products."

Harmful compounds such as diacetyl, which causes 'popcorn lung', have been found in illicit vapes.

While Mr Kuttruf is concerned about the impact this has on public health, he is also aware of the detrimental impact "rogue players" selling cheap illicit vapes have on businesses that follow the legal process.

"There are so many retailers and cowboys jumping on the bandwagon and they have no care for the industry. They are not being controlled and they don't have the experience of age verification processes," he said.

Evapo recently opened in Blue Boar Row. (Image: Salisbury Journal)

The Vaping Industry Association is calling upon the UK government to introduce licensing for vape shops similar to alcohol retailers and more drastic fines for traders who are found to break existing European Tobacco Product Directive regulations.

An eight-week consultation on restricting child-friendly flavours and bright-coloured vape packaging was launched on October 12 following an announcement to move toward a 'smokefree generation'.

Vaping is recognised as a tool to quit smoking and Mr Kuttruf said this has worked for "80 per cent" of his customers.

"[Vaping] is such a tremendous part of achieving the government's smoke-free 2030 goal and we see that every day," he added.