Police discovered more than 3,000 items of illegal vape and tobacco products following raids on three town centre shops.

Trading standards officials from Kent County Council (KCC) joined forces with officers in central Ashford last Friday (May 24).

The businesses, which have not been named by police or KCC, were found to have 66 tubs of nicotine pouches, 880 vapes, 1,680 cigarette sticks and 600g of hand-rolling tobacco.

Non-compliant vapes and tobacco products are illegal when they do not meet UK safety standards as they may pose health and environmental harm.

KCC’s trading standards operations manager, Jim Whiddett, said: “The partnership approach to Friday’s activity enabled officers to deal with the premises in an effective way.

"Trading standards will continue to remove illegal tobacco, vapes and nicotine pouches from shops in Kent.

"This illegal activity brings criminals into our communities and can encourage children to smoke or vape due to the cheap price of the products.”

PC Aaron Hobday, of Ashford’s beat team, says action needs to be taken to keep residents safe across the town.

He added: “As neighbourhood policing officers, we use any information we pick up during our beat to keep people safe - be that from crime or illegal products like these.

“By working with trading standards in this instance, we are helping to keep Ashford safe and preventing potentially dangerous products from being sold to the public.”

KCC's vape team has been in operation for six months.

During this time it has removed more than 12,000 illegal vapes from the streets of Kent following about 600 visits to retailers in the county.

This included a 15,000 puff device with a single tank which is more than 20 times the size for a legal product.

The group has also found devices without the correct labelling or warnings, meaning they have not passed the appropriate checks to ensure they are safe to use.

Mr Whiddett explained: “It is clear from some of the evidence that some shops are continuing to supply illegal products despite the team’s advice.

"We will continue to work with partner agencies to engage with retailers to ensure compliance or disrupt this illegal activity with further interventions when appropriate.”