A push of a button revealed a shop’s extravagant way of hiding more than £10,000 worth of illicit cigarettes, tobacco, and vapes inside a secret cabinet.
Derbyshire Trading Standards officers and Derbyshire Police discovered how the owners had gone to extraordinary lengths to try and keep counterfeit products hidden, installing a kitchen counter on hydraulic legs that would raise and lower at the push of a button.
However, the elaborate hideaway proved no match for a sniffer dog.
Derby City Council said In all, 791,000 cigarettes, almost 140kg of hand-rolling tobacco, and 5,082 illegal vapes have been seized in the past year.