Publicans face losing licences over 'tipping'

Licensees have been issued with a fresh warning over the penalties they face if caught swapping leading spirits brands with cheaper substitutes.

The International Federation of Spirits Producers (IFSP) has sent out the caution following three more successful prosecutions against pubs for the practice, known as "tipping".

Philip Scatchard, the IFSP's director, said: "Now that the new Licensing Act has come into force, licence-holders will have to be especially diligent in ensuring bottles are not refilled with alternative, usually cheaper brands, as the penalty for the offence is no longer a fine and criminal record, but can also lead to the loss of their licence."

On November 16, Barry Alexander, licensee at the Artful Dodger, in Elm, near Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, was fined £1,000 by magistrates for selling cheaper brands of vodka and gin from bottles of Smirnoff and Gordon's.

The offence was spotted by trading standards officers, who had called into the pub on a routine inspection.

Mr Alexander said he did not know how the switch had happened, but pleaded guilty to two charges.

In another case the licensee of Fever bar in Birkenhead, Wirral, was fined £2,000 for selling cheap white rum as Bacardi.

Mark Taylor pleaded guilty to two charges under the Trade Descriptions Act at Birkenhead Magistrates Court on November 11.

Meanwhile, a 27-year-old barman was fined £400 for "tipping" while working at the Station Inn, in Mossblown, South Ayrshire, Scotland.

Thomas Irwin pleaded guilty at Ayr Sheriff Court to selling substituted Gordon's gin.

Mr Scatchard added: "Fortunately it is a reducing minority of licensees that commit this kind of offence and we hope that this will be a deterrent to others."