A newsagent’s is facing a licence review after allegedly selling “smuggled goods” — including hundreds of fake bottles of Smirnoff “erroneously” labelled as whisky.

East West Food & Wine in Wrotham Road, Gravesend, was visited by Kent Trading Standards on two separate occasions after it received reports of alcohol being sold to street drinkers.

During the initial visit on December 23, inspectors noticed several bottles of alcohol had “poor quality labels”.

Upon further inspection, it was found the label on the back of a bottle of Smirnoff Vodka featuring the UK Duty Stamp contained more words than usual.

The Trading Standards application states: “These would not be found on a genuine UK Duty Stamp incorporated into a label and in this instance erroneously suggesting the product to be whisky.”

Inspectors revisited the shop on January 10 and the same bottles were found on the shelf again.

Several bottles of The Famous Grouse whisky which had “poorly applied labels with similar errors” were also found.

Checks were then made with the manufacturers of both products who confirmed the labels applied to the bottles were intended for sale in Europe.

The Smirnoff drink had been bottled in Italy and the labels were described by inspectors as “by far the worst” quality they had seen.

The sample bottles examined were discovered to have originally gone to warehouses in Germany for distribution in Europe, with some also being supplied to Spain and Denmark.

The labels found on the back of the Famous Grouse bottles were also confirmed to be counterfeit due to design errors by the producer.

In the main stock room, a “significant quality” of boxed alcohol was found hidden behind other products.

The condition of the boxes indicated that they contained “smuggled” products.

Grinders, pipes bearing drug imagery, and small plastic ziplock bags were also on sale at the shop.

Such items are commonly known to be used as “deal bags” for the supply of drugs. However, no evidence was found the premises was actually supplying drugs.

But the application states that the supply of all three products “can be attributed to a public nuisance as they serve little other purpose”.

A total of 172 bottles of alcohol were seized from the shop, with this being the second time illicit items have been discovered at the site.

In 2015, police seized 11kg of chewing tobacco and 31 litres of non-duty-paid alcohol from the shop.

It was able to keep its licence under the condition that all alcohol sold must be purchased from a bona fide reputable VAT-registered wholesale business.

A record also had to be maintained of all purchases of alcohol and tobacco including receipts clearly identifying the seller.

However, the latest inspection found that this was not always done.

The report adds: “Not only is this the second instance of smuggled goods being found at the premises, but the quantity is also the highest identified by Trading Standards at a Kent premises in over 10 years.

“The quantities and concealed manner that the bulk of the goods were found in the storeroom makes it inconceivable that these were an accidental purchase but rather a deliberate act to make money.”

The potential gain across the supply chain stands at £1,810.25.

An application was submitted to the licensing authority, Gravesham council, on January 27.

The grounds for the review are the “sale/storage of smuggled alcohol” and the “supply of alcohol and other articles from the premises contributing to public nuisance.”

Under its current licence, the shop can sell alcohol between 8am to 11pm from Monday to Saturday, and from 10am to 10.30pm on Sundays – with exceptions made on Christmas Day and Good Friday.

The alcohol cannot be sold in an open container and has to be consumed off the premises.

Trading Standards is asking the panel for the premises’ licence to be revoked.

It will meet this Thursday (March 13) at 10am at Gravesend Civic Centre to discuss and reach a decision.

KentOnline approached East West Food & Wine for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.