Kubus on Frodsham Street is closed for illicit tobacco, and three shops elsewhere are shut again after reopening. Raids found stock behind a false wall.
A Frodsham Street shop in Chester has been ordered to close after what Cheshire West and Chester Council calls “persistent sales of illicit tobacco”. It is the first time Kubus, at 20 Frodsham Street, has been shut.
Three more shops in the borough have been closed for a second or third time. All three had reopened after earlier orders and gone on selling illicit tobacco, the council said in its release of 21 October.
The four premises closed this week are:
- Kubus, 20 Frodsham Street, Chester
- E.port Off Licence, 31 Marina Drive, Ellesmere Port, about eight miles north of Chester
- King Vape, 10 High Street, Neston, about ten miles north-west
- A to Z convenience store, 27 High Street, Northwich, about 18 miles east
The council’s Trading Standards and Legal Services teams applied for the orders. The three repeat closures run for a further three months. The council did not say how long the Kubus order lasts.
Hidden compartments and a detection dog
Separately, the council, Cheshire Police, immigration officers and HM Revenue and Customs visited four other shops last week. Two were in Chester and two in Ellesmere Port. The council has not named them.
Officers seized 6,400 cigarettes and 1.8kg of tobacco. A tobacco detection dog found illegal goods behind a false wall and in hidden compartments, the council said.
The same addresses keep coming back
The council’s own releases show how often these premises have been here before. We set out the record in September, when three Ellesmere Port shops were shut.
- 31 Marina Drive, Ellesmere Port was closed in November 2025 and again in April 2026, named first as Ellesmere Port Mini Market and Convenience Store, then as Ellesmere Port Off Licence & Convenience Store. This is the third order the council has announced for the address. The council has not said whether the same business has traded there throughout.
- A to Z Convenience Store, 27 High Street, Northwich was first closed in April 2026.
- King Vape Mini Market, High Street, Neston was closed from June to 3 September, the council said in June. It is now shut again from the same address, 10 High Street.
Kubus is the second Chester shop to be closed in the campaign. The first was Sakotis, on Brook Street, in January.
Counting only the orders the council has announced, it has now secured 15 closure orders against 10 premises since November 2025. Four of those premises have been closed more than once.
The true total may be higher. In January the council described the Sakotis order as its “fourth such closure in recent months”, when its releases had named three.
What a closure order does
A closure order is a civil order made by magistrates under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. It attaches to the building, not to a person. Nobody has been convicted of anything by this week’s orders.
While an order is in force, anyone who enters or stays on the premises without a reasonable excuse commits an offence.
Councillor Stuart Bingham, the cabinet member for community safety and neighbourhood pride, said: “We will continue to close businesses that are repeatedly selling illegal tobacco, illegal vapes and age-restricted products. They are a danger to our communities and also undermine responsible traders.”
He added that illegal tobacco and vapes “are often linked to wider criminality and can be sold without the safety checks and standards expected of legitimate products”.
What it means for you
- The four shops must stay shut while the orders run. A shop trading under an order is worth reporting.
- To report illegal tobacco, illicit vapes or sales to children, call the Citizens Advice consumer service on 0808 223 1133. That is the route the council gives, and it passes reports to Trading Standards.
- Illicit cigarettes are not just cheap. Stock seized in earlier borough cases had no English health warnings, and some vapes held nicotine liquid far above the legal limit, as we reported in September.
Three of this week’s four shops had already been closed once, so we will check the council’s record again when these orders run out in January.
Sources: Cheshire West and Chester Council news releases of 21 October 2026, 8 June 2026, 14 April 2026, 27 January 2026 and 5 November 2025; section 86 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.
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