£11,000 bill over beer kegs with wrong labels
ADRINKS wholesaler who sold beer kegs with the wrong best-before date must pay £11,212 in fines and costs.
Porthmadog-based Dawsons (Wales) Ltd admitted four charges relating to misleading marketing and trademark charges.
Julia Longworth, prosecuting on behalf of Gwynedd council’s trading standards department, said officers received information from private investigators acting on behalf of brewing giant Heineken about the firm’s practice of relabelling.
She told magistrates the charges related to three kegs of beer labelled as Fosters lager which were supplied to Bryn Eisteddfod hotel, Clynnog Fawr, and Glyn Garth hotel, Llanbedrog.
The kegs had been relabelled after being returned unsold, resulting in them displaying inaccurate best-before dates, barcodes and serial numbers.
Ms Longworth said 54 relabelled beer kegs were found when the firm’s depot on the Penamser industrial estate was raided in December 2016.
The relabelling could have put Dawsons’ customers at risk of sell- ing out-of-date beer, she said, adding: “The sale had potentially economic and reputational harm to their customers.”
The firm’s director, Peter Dawson, 66, of Llan Ffestiniog, had faced eight individual charges, but these were withdrawn at the hearing in Caernarfon.
John Heaton, defending, said there was no risk to public health. He said Dawson explained to officers at interview that a small part of his business involved supplying beer kegs to outdoor events on a “sale or return” basis.
“When those kegs were returned, the labels had occasionally come off, and staff had begun the practice of using old labels in their place,” said Mr Heaton.
“The beer in the kegs was not unfit to drink. There were no complaints from customers and no consumer suffered an injury.”
He added: “In most cases, the beer labelled as Fosters was in fact Fosters. Technically, in relabelling, it was counterfeit, but this is not a case of labelling something it is not.”
Bench chair Peter Evans said: “We find the acts to be reckless causing possible harm to public health.”