Perthshire village post office owner hits out at 'heavy-handed' inspection by Trading Standards and police

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A local business owner has hit out at what he has described as a “heavy-handed” and “non-routine” inspection of his premises by Trading Standards and Police Scotland.Four premises in Blairgowrie are understood to have been visited by officers from Police Scotland’s Blairgowrie community policing team and Trading Standards on Thursday, September 14.One of those visited was the Post Office in Perth Street, run by Sandy Sarwar.Mr Sarwar explained: “Five Trading Standards officers, two police officers and a sniffer dog inspected our small shop on Perth Street on Thursday.“They confiscated VuseGo Edition 01 vapes, which were supplied to us by British American Tobacco and are compliant with all UK regulations.“I called Trading Standards the following day and they then called me back and said that the vapes would be returned to me on the Monday as they had tested the nicotine levels of the various vapes and found that they were legal.“During the visit, one of the officers blocked the doorway and would not let any customers onto the premises for the Post Office.“The dog handler was asked if he wanted to search the Post Office area, but he declined as it was not part of the shop so, on this basis, the Post Office customers should not have been denied access for the half hour the officers were in the store.“Police Scotland then put a post on social media about the visit.“It has been the talk of the town that the Post Office was ‘raided’ by police.

This is to the severe detriment of my reputation and that of the post office.“Only four establishments were targeted by Trading Standards in Blairgowrie that day; and all of them were small independent shops owned by people from ethnic minorities.