UK store loses its liquor license after selling fake wine

The owner of a convenience store in Brighton, UK, has lost its liquor license after an inspection uncovered 90 counterfeit bottles of prosecco wine.

Awarah Shikha (28), who runs Tivoli Food and Wine in Tivoli Crescent, Brighton, has 21 days to appeal against the decision to remove his licence. Along with the counterfeit Verbano and Mirella prosecco bottles, Trading Standards also found a fake bottle of Blossom Hill white zinfandel wine.

Shikha told a licensing hearing he had bought the fake wine from a “white van man”, with no way of tracing its origin and no receipt.

“The evidence from Trading Standards makes it clear that the purchase and sale of large quantities of illegal alcohol discovered in March 2020 was not the first time that the premises had been associated with this type of activity,” said acting sergeant Vincent Lam of Sussex Police and local councillor Lizzie Deane in a joint statement.