ANTI smoking campaigners have cast doubt on claims that bootleg cigarette sales in the region are on the increase.

Research backed by the tobacco industry suggests more than a quarter of cigarettes smoked are either illegal or bought abroad- contributing nothing to the exchequer and propping up organised crime.

The findings were released after a survey by MSIntelligence for which 12,700 packs were recovered from streets and bins across the UK, including from Darlington.

Four major tobacco companies funded the research which has been branded worthless by Trading Standards officials and is seen as scaremongering and a reaction to Government moves to introduce standardised packaging rules.

Richard Ferry, of the North East Trading Standards Association, said the illicit tobacco market has roughly halved over the past decade to one in ten cigarettes- contrary to the survey’s results which show an increase from 21.5 per cent in 2013 to 25.8 per cent in 2014.

He said: “While illegal tobacco is still a problem is some areas, litter picks are known to be pretty worthless and have been attacked in the UK, Ireland and Australia for over-estimating the size of the market."

Former Scotland Yard detective chief inspector Will O’Reilly worked on the survey.

He said: “People don’t necessarily understand the consequences of purchasing illegal tobacco.

“If you buy a cheap packet of cigarettes that money ends up supporting organised crime.

“Every cigarette funds the availability of drugs on our streets, gun crime or terrorist attacks, making our communities and our streets less safe.

“The widespread availability of illicit tobacco has a devastating impact on our local communities.”

Mr Ferry said whilst it is undeniable that criminals are involved in illegal tobacco, multinationals are known to oversupply some European countries with smuggling routes.

He added: “The tobacco companies are doing all they can to attack plain standardised packaging to make cigarettes less attractive to children.

“However standardised packs are not plain at all and will still have security codings to tell the difference between legal and illegal tobacco.”

Fresh was set up in the North-East in 2005 to tackle the worst rates of smoking related illness and death in the country and since then smoking has fallen by nearly a third.

Lisa Surtees, director of Fresh, said: “All tobacco, whether it is legal or illegal, contains deadly chemicals.

“The toxic products sold by tobacco companies kill one in every two lifelong smokers and are killing 15 people every day in the North East.”