Landlords are to blame for Oxford Street being “overrun” with candy stores selling knock-off goods.
The new Labour leader of Westminster Council, Adam Hug, told landlords to “take responsibility” yesterday, after his trading standards team swooped in to seize counterfeit items worth more than £100,000.
Among the haul seized from American Candy stores in London’s West End were £20,000 of fake Willy Wonka bars. Westminster’s trading standards team said the bars were supermarket own-brand chocolate bars that cost as little as 40p, but had been re-wrapped and sold in the stores for £9-£10.
The council has been targeting the sweet shops, which have proliferated in the West End, amid claims that they owe nearly £8m in business rates. So far this year it has seized items worth almost £600,000.
Hug said: “Anyone looking in these Willy Wonka bars for a golden ticket will be looking in vain. We need landlords to take responsibility over who they let to. We will be stepping up pressure on landlords to make it clear they are responsible for Oxford Street being overrun with these stores.”
At least 10 US-style sweet shops can be found between Marble Arch and Tottenham Court Road Tube stations.
