A SHOP caught selling counterfeit vodka could be stripped of its alcohol licence next week.

East Euro Food Centre, in Girlington, Bradford, was fined last year after it was found to be selling a spirit called Redwood Vodka, which was not vodka at all.

Trading Standards officials seized 20 bottles and tested them, only to find they contained the industrial alcohols isopropanol and tertiary butanol.

The spirit failed the standards set by the Food Safety Act and was also found to have been watered down with tap water, meaning it was 4.5 per cent below the minimum alcohol standard expected of vodka.

Shop manager Ahmandreza Zaraie, and company director Esmaeil Rajabi were both fined last year, after pleading guilty to food safety offences in court.

Now West Yorkshire Trading Standards wants Bradford Council to strip the shop of its licence, saying that after the counterfeit vodka had been found, in 2013, it had continued to receive complaints about the premises.

These reports allege that the shop, in Whetley Lane, had been selling cigarettes and alcohol to underage children and had also been selling illicit cigarettes and alcohol.

In a letter to the Bradford District Licensing Panel, the head of Trading Standards, David Lodge, said it considers the sale of counterfeit vodka to be "extremely serious".

He said: "In addition, West Yorkshire Trading Standards is concerned that due to additional observations and complaints, the premises is still not operating legally.

"In these circumstances, West Yorkshire Trading Standards service considers that they have no option other than to seek a review of the premises licence and would recommend a full revocation of the licence, with the removal of Ahmandreza Zaraie as the premises licence holder and the designated premises supervisor."

The licensing panel will meet to discuss the matter on Thursday, January 22, at 1pm in City Hall, Bradford.

No managers could be reached for comment at East Euro Food Centre yesterday.

When the case came to court, in April 2014, magistrates heard that trading standards officials had also found some 146 products found to be past their use-by date – totalling more than 800 days - as well as food not labelled in English.