A newsagent faces a £1,200 legal bill after he was convicted of selling cigarettes without health warnings.

Borham Hussein Abdulla, owner of Kingston News in Fife Road, admitted selling illegal tobacco "under the counter" after Trading Standards were tipped off by a member of the public.

Some 400 packs - totalling 8,000 cigarettes - were seized from his shop last October and did not include required health warnings, meaning they were illegal.

Alonso Ercilla, Kingston Council's trading standards manager, said: "Illegal tobacco is a serious public health matter because the important health warnings about the dangers of smoking do not get communicated to the purchaser.

"The compositional levels of nicotine and tar are often higher than those permitted. Additionally, the public purse loses out through uncollected duty taxes and, of course, other businesses suffer from the unfair competition that selling illegal tobacco creates.

"The message is clear. If you try to sell illegal tobacco under the counter, the chances are we’ll catch you, take you to court and you’ll get a hefty bill to pay as well as a criminal record."

Abdulla admitted four offences under the Consumer Protection Act.

He was ordered to pay £1,262 court costs plus a £15 surcharge, and handed a three-year conditional discharge, at Lavender Hill Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, April 14.