THE owner of two Carlisle city centre vaping stores has admitted selling products that breached health regulations.

Leighton John Dodds, 41, whose business earns him a £46,000 annual salary, pleaded guilty to a raft of charges relating his stores selling illegal vapes in March and April last year from units at Carlisle Market.

Nine of the charges were against him as an individual and nine against his company, Cumbria Vapes Limited.

He is the sole director.

Jonathan Farnworth, prosecuting on behalf of Cumberland Council, outlined the facts.

He outlined how Trading Standards officials felt it necessary to issue warnings to the defendant after spot checks confirmed that some of the vapes he was selling did not comply with health regulations.

There are strict rules on the size of vapes, and on the concentration of nicotine such products can contain.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency sets down strict rules governing vapes. All vaping devices must be registered with the agency. 

Yet despite being warned that some of his products were non-compliant, the two Carlisle stores continued selling them, said the prosecutor.

The non-compliant vapes flouted the rules in various ways. Some were too big and one contained too much nicotine.

In total, Trading Standards officials seized 106 illegal vapes.

Some did not have the correct health warnings, and others had contained up to four times the permitted amount of vape liquid, said Mr Farnworth.

The prosecutor said: "Vapes were originally conceived as a method of weaning smokers off smoking traditional cigarettes and helping to reduce nicotine intake to an acceptable level.

"They are medical products."

But there are concerns, said the lawyer, about the long term effects of vaping.

He said: "Clearly, they are much less harmful than smoking but the jury is out about the health concerns further down the line."

The nicotine concentration in any one single-use vape should be no more than 20mg per litre. But one of the vapes sold by the defendant had a nicotine concentration of 26.68mg.

Another vape being sold at the store - called Badblood 6,000 Puff Blue Razz - was five times the permitted size.

The offences were committed despite the defendant having earlier been supplied by council officers with clear guidance on the rules and how to check whether products were compliant.

The defendant's two Carlisle shops supplied vapes - typically costing !0 each - to between 300 and 400 customers per day.

He told officials he is the county's biggest vape retailer.

Mr Farnworth added: "Essentially, in his interview, Mr Dodds accepted that he sold these products and said that if he didn't sell them someone else would."

The prosecution was brought on the basis of the defendant having been negligent.

Mr Farnworth added: "We don't know what the long-term effects of these products are."

Mairi Clancy, defending, said the defendant took out a sizeable loan to start his business and took a "modest salary."

A married father of three, the business was his sole source of income. 

The lawyer said: "He has taken clear steps to avoid a recurrence of the circumstances which led to him being here today. 

"He wants to reassure the court that he now has an understanding of the various rules and regulations that his business is subjected to."

She added that the business was otherwise perfectly legitimate.

Dodds now sources the vapes he sells from a UK based supplier which deals in only compliant products.

The prosecutor in court confirmed there was no evidence before the court that vapes were sold to customers aged under 18

Dodds, of Caracdoc Close, Lampton, Washington, Tyne and Wear, now uses a facial recognition device to confirm customers are adults, said Miss Clancy.

A man of previous good character, the defendant was embarrassed to be before the court, added the lawyer.

The defendant employed six people at the time of his offending.

Mr Dodds was fined £3,540 and ordered to pay £1,000 costs and a £190 victim surcharge.

Cumbria Vapes was fined £8,000 by magistrates. In addition, £1,000 costs were imposed and a £190 mandatory victim surcharge.