Highworth Town Football Club has been left with a bill of more than £4,000 for selling wrongly-labelled spirits to customers at its bar.

The club, based at The Elms Recreation Ground in Highworth, sold cheaper gin as premium brand Gordon’s and also offered different spirits under the names of Smirnoff Vodka and Superior Bacardi Rum.

The situation at the volunteer-run amateur club was uncovered when Swindon Council conducted a routine white spirits test at the clubhouse and other premises in the area.

Phil Wirth, prosecuting for Swindon Council at Swindon Magistrates’ Court on Monday, said the prosecution was not about trade marks or competition between brands, but about ensuring that people receive the product they pay for.

He said: “People go along and they want Gordon’s Gin and they are misled by the fact there’s Gordon’s Gin on the optics. But of course it’s not Gordon’s Gin in the bottle, it’s Grosvenor so they’re misled as to the quality of the drink they are having.”

He said council officers attended the club on June 30, 2011 and tested all of the spirits with special dip sticks. Some of the drinks failed so samples were later sent off to be analysed for authenticity by a public analyst.

Both Rohan Haines, who had become club chairman four days previously, and Darren Robbins, the then bar manager, were interviewed by Swindon Council.

Mr Wirth said it emerged that the club’s last bottle of Gordon’s had been bought in 2008, but there had been several purchases of Grosvenor, which had been used to refill the Gordon’s bottle on the bar. Mr Wirth said the Smirnoff problem came about on the day of the World Cup match between England and Germany, which was very busy.

A mistake had been made in replacing one of the bottles, so it was labelled incorrectly. No explanation was given for the incorrectly labelled Bacardi.

Mr Robbins accepted a personal caution and Mr Haines pleaded guilty on behalf of the club to three offences under the Food Safety Act 1990.

Mr Haines said there was no excuse for the mis-selling and stressed that steps had been taken to stop a repeat. He said the bar manager had been replaced.

He claimed the incident was a one-off and pointed out that a substantial fine would have a serious detrimental impact on the running of the club.

He estimated that the club only benefited by only about £25 over 18 months as a result of selling the cheaper drink.

The club was fined a total of £1,500 and also told to pay £2,800 costs, plus a £15 victim surcharge.

David Poots, chairman of the bench, said: “The income from the bar is some £55,000, so this works out at less than 10 per cent of the amount of income you generate each year and we believe you should be able to recover that over the course of the next year.

“Obviously you learned a lesson by this, indicated by the fact you have changed your procedures since then. We take note of the fact that the club is run by volunteers and that the gain was minimal.”

Speaking after the hearing, Phil Thomas, head of community and commercial safety at Swindon Council, said: “Substituting a cheap spirit for a branded one is serious matter and is difficult to do unwittingly.

“I am sure the members and visitors to the club would not expect to be misled by the club in this way.”