Counterfeit cigarettes were hidden in a special cupboard operated by an hydraulic door at a Ravensthorpe shop.

But sniffer dogs found the hidden tobacco when they raided the Biedronka store in Huddersfield Road.

Now shopkeeper Hishyar Suleiman Gully has been given a suspended jail sentence after counterfeit cigarettes and tobacco was discovered in his premises.

Leeds Crown Court heard a trading standards officer posed as a customer and asked for a packet of cheap tobacco.

READ MORE: Illegal tobacco was inside hidden compartments discovered in Hishyar Gully's Dewsbury shop

READ MORE:Huddersfield a hotspot for illegal cigarettes as hundreds of thousands are seized

Miles Barker prosecuting said he was given a 50 grammes pack purporting to be Golden Virginia for which he was charged £3 – the recommended retail value for such a pack was £17 and it was not displaying a Government health warning.

Two days later officers with dogs visited the shop and they found counterfeit tobacco products under the counter and in a toilet area to the rear when a mirror was removed from the wall a hydraulically operated door was found to a further storage area containing more tobacco products and £1,000 in cash.

Hidden counterfeit cigarettes seized in West Yorkshire raids

Tobacco companies were sent samples of Amber Leaf, Golden Virginia and Mayfair tobacco which they confirmed as counterfeit, while cigarettes recovered had been manufactured for the Belgian and Slovakian markets and it was illegal to import them without appropriate duty having been paid.

Duty evaded on the 11,200 cigarettes and tobacco found was over £4,000.

It was estimated the counterfeit trade was costing the country billions in revenue and Mr Barker told the court those caught by trading standards “only scratch the surface of this pernicious trade.”

Gully, 35 of Crown Flatts Way, Dewsbury was convicted of fraudulent trading, nine offences of possessing items with false trademarks and three failing to display signs. He was given a six week jail sentence suspended for 12 months with 200 hours unpaid work.

He was also ordered to forfeit £1,000 and pay £4,391 in costs at £100 a week.