Beware counterfeit alcohol and tobacco
Retailers in the Royal Borough are being warned to be on their guard when stocking their shelves with tobacco and alcohol after recent shop inspections uncovered an increase in counterfeit and illegal alcohol and tobacco on sale in a number of premises.
Trading Standards and Licensing officers removed bottles from 11 of the 15 premises inspected including 30 bottles of fake champagne such as counterfeit Bollinger being sold for up to £49.99 and other bottles of cheap alcohol falsely labelled as champagne and being sold for £35.99. In addition 70 bottles of fake Jacobs Creek wine were also found.
Checks of spirits found 76 bottles of vodka and whisky originally intended for export but now illegally on sale here after being redirected back into the UK market and thus evading up to £6.70 per bottle in excise duty. Other bottles were found on sale with no excise duty stamp at all or with duty excise labels from other European countries.
Tests on packs of cigarettes revealed that all the packs were genuine but a number of packs of tobacco blunts - cigarette rolling paper containing flavoured tobacco - were found with German rather than UK health warnings, indicating that they too had evaded excise duty as well as failing to comply with UK labelling requirements.
All the shops inspected voluntarily surrendered the illegal bottles of alcohol and were given a warning by trading standards officers, and advised to only buy their stock from established and reputable sources.
Cllr Phill Bicknell, Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Environment, said: "It is very difficult for most people to tell whether alcohol or tobacco products are genuine or not. Duty evasion is not a 'victimless crime'. It doesn't just mean less money going to the tax man - equally as importantly, it means an unfair trading environment for those businesses who take care to sell only legal products and who are often struggling to compete in difficult economic times.
"Our Trading Standards officers will continue to work to ensure a fair trading environment for all local businesses".
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