Council boss: We need help to shut dodgy American candy stores in the West End

By Hannah Neary, Local Democracy Reporter

A council boss says he doesn’t have the power to shut down American candy shops selling dodgy goods in Oxford Street.

Westminster City council leader Adam Hug said the authority is continuing to raid American candy stores that are selling counterfeit and unsafe products in the West End, but it needs more help to completely shut them down.

So far, the council has seized about £600,000 worth of dodgy goods from souvenir and candy stores in the West End, including out-of-date chocolate and unsafe vapes.

Enforcement officers have found the stores are often owned by shell companies with no assets. And there are currently 30 stores under investigation by the council.

Cllr Hug told Eddie Nestor on BBC Radio London: “We need action there, we need greater support from different parts of central Government, whether that’s police or HMRC, all different agencies to get to grips of who’s behind these shops.

“We are trying our best as a local council – we can nick as much dodgy candy as we like, but that’s not getting to the heart of the problem.

“I’d love to be able to snap my fingers and shut them down right now but the point is that’s not how the law works.”

Cllr Hug added: “We are trying to put pressure on the Government to give us more resources.

“We are doing raids all the time and we want to do more, but that’s tackling the symptoms rather than the causes.

“Our teams are going after the people who we think own the companies, but it’s a labyrinth.

“They close down and open up again with a slightly different name in a slightly different location.

“It’s whack-a-mole. They’re not just on Oxford Street, they’re spreading across the West End. It’s a broader problem.

One of the council’s chief officers recently said the authority was unlikely to reclaim £7.9 million worth of unpaid business rates from US-themed sweet shops in Oxford Street.

Cllr Hug said the council needed to encourage landlords to stop renting their premises to the dodgy businesses.

He added: “We have also got to provide positive opportunities for landlords who are legit landlords who are struggling with business rates to find new alternatives.”

Pictured top: Some of the goods seized during a recent Oxford Street raid (Picture: Adam Hug/Westminster City council)