John Colley has found it nigh on impossible to buy his favourite pipe tobacco due to the insistence on a different health warning in the Channel Islands. (Picture by John O’Neill, 0549392)

A PIPE smoker of nearly 50 years believes he is being victimised by the health authorities.

Vale man John Colley, 68, said that Health and Social Security’s insistence on a Channel Islands health warning on tobacco products meant that his favourite brand was no longer available in the island.

‘I can’t get it anywhere here and I’ve been told it is down to the packaging,’ he said. Mr Colley said he had imported a pack from Northern Ireland at a cost of £50 and on top of that faced a £30 charge imposed by Customs.

He said the cost was becoming prohibitive because he lived on a pension. ‘I feel I’m being victimised. I’ve been a pipe smoker since I was 20 and I’m being forced to give up the only vice I have.’