A Southall shop could be shut down for allegedly selling Marks and Spencer prosecco with the labels taken off and counterfeit cigarettes.
Ealing Council claims it has already seized roughly £1,250 worth of illicit goods from Sapna Express in The Green – including 1,540 cigarettes, 20 litres of spirits and wine and over 2kg of Indian tobacco.
Trading officers have searched the shop twice this year and officers also discovered labels glued over alcohol labels when they searched the shop on July 25, 2017.
Trading standard officers visited the shop on January 25, 2022 and found large bottles of M&S prosecco priced at £12.99. When they took a closer look at the bottles they saw the M&S branding had been trimmed off.
A trading officer told Ealing Council in January: “The shop worker was asked to contact the owner and ask him to attend the shop. He telephoned him and when he got through he said in Punjabi: ‘You need to attend shop, we have been captured.’ This was translated by one of the police officers present.”
He added: “On July 20, 2022, Officer Gohery and myself attended the premises at 5.30pm with police officers from the Southall ward team as part of an operation targeting street drinking and premises that were believed to be purchasing stolen alcohol.
“While inspecting the alcohol behind the counter, I noticed a large quantity of wine spread around the display shelves that are sold in Tesco’s. It was not priced and when the bottles were removed from the shelves it was discovered that the security labels were still attached to the bottles.
“On the floor behind the counter was a large cardboard box that contained another 22 bottles of various wines some of which still had the security labels attached.”
Erectile dysfunction pills, illicit cigarettes and Indian tobacco were also found in a box during the search. Ealing Council is set to decide the shop’s future at a licensing meeting on September 7.
