A petrol station was one of several businesses to have suspected illegal e-cigarettes seized in a day of action on Wednesday.

Horwich Service Station is considered the cheapest petrol station in the area, but customers were treated to the sight of police and other officers taking hundreds of suspected illicit items.

Earlier the team was at two shops by the name of Horwich Pound Plus, both of which saw suspected illegal e-cigarettes seized too.

The day of action, itself a part of a week of action by GMP Bolton and across the region, comes as police and Trading Standards try to crack down on the issues which matter most to communities.

READ MORE: Bolton to see biggest change to police 'in a generation'.

Neighbourhood Sergeant Emma Crowe, of GMP Bolton, said: "Illicit vapes are dangerous and put lives at risk so it is great to see such significant numbers seized today.

"Today is an example of how we are working collectively to protect our communities as we continue to take action against the sale of illegal goods and underage goods."

The Bolton News:

One of the issues with these e-cigarettes was the lack of a UK address on the label. This is a requirement for all e-cigarettes.

Another of the issues was the number of puffs. Some advertised 6000 puffs, more than 10 times the number of puffs which is standard for the items.

READ MORE: Head of St Joseph's High School calls for action on e-cigs.

The manager of one business said he obtained e-cigarettes from Cheetham Hill, an area known as the 'counterfeit capital' of the UK, while the manager of another business said he obtained e-cigarettes from a 'man in a van'.

Trading Standards deposits the items for a short time, then destroys them unless the businesses prove these are legal after all.

The week of action by GMP Bolton and across the region comes after Andy Burnham said the force is to go 'back to basics' in the biggest change to the police in Greater Manchester 'in a generation'.

The force is adding more than 260 police constables to its neighbourhood teams across the region, but removing more than 300 police community support officers (PCSOs) in the process.

What is left in each of the three neighbourhood teams in Bolton will be one inspector, three police sergeants and around a dozen police constables. There will be 20 PCSOs, one per ward.

It means most of those in the the teams are to be warranted officers, with powers to arrest, stop and search, interview and investigate.

But the biggest change is those in the teams are to be ringfenced, or in other words cannot be taken out of their area to cover other responsibilities.

It comes after a public consultation received responses from more than 8,000 people, of whom more than half said the police are 'poor' in their area.

This article was written by Jack Tooth. To contact him, email jack.tooth@newsquest.co.uk or follow @JTRTooth on Twitter.