Workshop inspires students to go for career goal (From Swindon Advertiser)

Workshop inspires students to go for career goal

6:20pm Friday 10th February 2012 in News

by David Wiles A SHOP caught selling counterfeit Jacobs Creek wine had its premises licence suspended for two months by Swindon Council yesterday (Friday).

Abby’s, in Manchester Road, Broadgreen, sold a bottle of fake Jacobs Creek pinot grigio to an Environmental Health officer on March 31, 2011.

In the last five years, the store has also been caught with non-UK duty paid tobacco and alcohol, as well as 10 unclassified pornographic DVDs.

And yesterday, Swindon Council’s licensing panel imposed several sanctions on the store, including that its licence to sell alcohol be suspended for eight weeks and that Navaratnam Sathiyathevan be removed as designated premises supervisor.

The decision will take effect in 21 days, providing the joint premises licence holders, Arumugam Raveendran and Navaratnam Sathiyathevan, do not first appeal to magistrates, in which case there will be no change until the outcome of the case.

Russell Sharland, of Trading Standards, which brought the licence review, said: “Counterfeiting of alcohol misleads consumers into purchasing poor quality products which potentially could have serious public health consequences.

“Deception is often not obvious to the consumer and any poor quality perception can damage the brand concerned.

“As counterfeit product is often supplied at lower prices, this can also give an unfair commercial advantage over businesses who only supply lawful, legitimate products.”

The panel heard that a representative of Pernod Ricard, the trademark holder, carried out a survey in Swindon on March 25, following complaints from customers, and found counterfeit Jacobs Creek pinot grigio and semillon sauvignon blanc wine on sale at Abby’s.

On March 31, an Environmental Health officer bought a bottle of pinot grigio, which was subsequently identified as counterfeit. He saw nine bottles of the same wine on the shelf. Two he checked had basic spelling errors on labelling, including “Austrlia” for “Australia.”

On April 5, Trading Standards officers visited the premises but found no counterfeit wine on display. It appeared that bottles had been removed as there were gaps on the shelving within the display of Jacobs Creek bottles.

Mr Raveendran said he only bought alcohol from Batley’s cash and carry, although he later said in interview that he bought alcohol from four wholesalers including Batleys. He could not explain what happened to the eight other bottles.

CCTV was at the premises but he told an officer he did not know how the system worked or what the password was.

Manuharan Sinnerejah, representing the premises licence holders, explained that his clients had acquired the bottles from Eastenders wholesaler, in Slough, but these items did not appear on the invoice.

He explained the store had removed and destroyed the bottles because Mr Raveendran had caught wind they could be counterfeit. However he did not tell the authorities.

He said his clients either had already or planned to put in place measures to stop the problem re-occuuring, including for the CCTV to be upgraded and maintained, and for copies of invoices to be kept for six months on the premises for inspection.

Mr Sinnerejah said: “We apologise. I don’t want them to be punished and they’re putting their hands up. I hope my clients will maintain reasonable, good business practices in the future and they will co-operate with council officers in the future.”