// Oxford Street’s American candy shops have been raided by police and trading standards
// They found more than £200,000 worth of counterfeit products
The American candy stores that have opened along London’s Oxford Street have been raided by police and trading standards, who found more than £200,000 worth of counterfeit products.
The shops on Europe’s busiest shopping street have previously been accused of being at the centre of a tax-evasion scandal.
Yesterday a joint operation staffed by investigators from HMRC and Westminster City Council, alongside local police, targeted seven shops.
Subscribe to Retail Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest news straight into your inbox each morning
Oxford Street based Met officers said “playtime’s over” as they seized the fake goods.
The council said it seized more than 14,000 items yesterday with an estimated value of £215,000 from two shops.
Some stores – which have been accused of evading £8 million in business rates – have been found flogging fake Wonka chocolate bars and Rolexes.
In one shop, named Gifts and Luggage, the focus appeared to be on a wall of cigarettes containing more nicotine than the level allowed in the UK.
More were found in a cupboard in a room at the back of the shop.
“The latest raid on candy and souvenir stores has netted £215,000 of suspected fake and unsafe goods – from illegally strong vapes to designer fakes,” Westminster City Council leader, Adam Hug said.
“It is part of an ongoing campaign by the City Council to ensure people on Oxford Street get what they pay for.
“This was one of a series of multi-agency operations supported by the Metropolitan police which allows us as a local authority to keep taking effective action.
“We all know there has been an explosion of these stores on Oxford Street. We are currently investigating 30 candy and souvenir stores for what we believe is business rates evasion in the region of £8 million.
“The reality is these stores are a threat to the status and value of what is supposed to be the nation’s premier shopping street.”
The news comes after Westminster Council officers seized around £575,000 worth of counterfeit and illegal goods from American candy and souvenir stores. This includes counterfeit Wonka chocolate bars, vapes that contained excessive levels of nicotine and even fake Rolex watches.
Westminster City Council leader and councillor Adam Hug admitted that he doesn’t know where all the sweet shops came from, but after an investigation that took in 30 Oxford Street candy and souvenir stores – as the two are often linked – found that business rates evasion was rife.
In fact, it found that £7.9 million was owed in business rates. Westminster is the UK’s largest collector of business rates with the vast majority of funds redistributed to other local authorities around the country, therefore that lost income impacts all taxpayers.
