Sniffer dog Pippa will be showing off her skills in detecting illegal tobacco in Epsom this month.

She will be at a roadshow going across the county that is hoped to highlight the dangers of the counterfeit trade.

Denise Turner-Stewart, Surrey County Council’s cabinet member for community services, said: “The trade in illicit tobacco is damaging to health and damaging to communities, getting children hooked at pocket money prices, which is why we’re hoping as many people as possible come along to these roadshows and help us tackle the problem.”

At the events, members of the public will be encouraged to report shopkeepers and dealers who sell illicit tobacco, which is dangerous.

Illegal cigarettes might contain rogue ingredients and rarely carry health warnings, they have not had tax paid on them, and are often linked to organised crime.

And they do not have the safety feature that legal cigarettes have, whereby they extinguish if left unattended - meaning illegal tobacco is potentially lethal.

Pippa, who works with trading standards officers, will be at Epsom Market Place from 10am to 4pm on Thursday, June 14.