Brewers were accused of failing to take responsibility for fighting beer fraud during the first meeting of the Beer Tax Fraud Inquiry in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
The All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group launched the investigation after the Government opened a consultation into the proposed introduction of duty stamps on beer bottles and cans.
James Bielby, chief executive of the Federation of Wholesale Distributors (FWD), which represents wholesalers that supply independent retailers, said that brewers “knowingly” oversupply some wholesalers – aware that they will sell the product on to export or other wholesalers – increasing the chances of duty fraud.
He told the panel of 11 MPs that “alcohol (is) being sold three or four times which means it passes hands a number of times before entering the illicit market.
“There are some rogue wholesalers out there but I certainly don’t think the problem lies largely with the wholesalers.
“Brewers don’t seem to acknowledge that any of their members are doing anything wrong. I think this is not necessarily the right way to tackle the issue. Every level of the supply chain has activities going on which are fraudulent and it is up to the industry as a whole to tackle it rather than try to pass the burden onto another part of the supply chain.”
British Beer & Pub Association director of Brewing Andy Tighe refuted the accusation claiming that a lot of “checks and balances” before selling their beer to wholesalers or customers.
He said: “They will do all types of credit checks and due diligence checks to get an assurance that the customers who they are selling to are credible people. But there are limitations to what they can do beyond the first customer.”