Council raids Oxford Street candy shop to seize 600 illegal treats
by Mark Duell · Mail OnlineOne of Oxford Street's biggest candy stores has been raided for the second time in eight months by council officers who seized more than 600 banned treats including US sweets, cereals, crisps and fizzy drinks.
The Westminster City Council operation found illicit Lucky Charms cereal, KitKats, Lion bars and drinks such as Mirinda and Fanta containing dangerous ingredients.
Products on sale at the shop called 'Basic Mart' were bagged up and sent to the incinerator for containing additives, colourings and e-numbers banned in the UK.
Some of the chocolate bars were not labelled in English - meaning consumers cannot check the products for ingredients, sell by dates or vital allergen notices.
The raid on September 6 saw 676 items confiscated with a total value of £2,852.75 and comes ahead a busy season for sweet shops with Halloween on the way.
It is the second time the council has swooped on the store after also seizing 2,000 suspected illegal items worth £55,000 including sweets and vapes in January.
In the last three months alone, 2,374 banned products from the shop have been destroyed. However, incredibly it is still allowed to continue trading, which is thought to be due to the council's limited enforcement powers as a local authority.
| PRODUCT | ADDITIVE | HAZARDS |
|---|---|---|
| PowerADE | Calcium disodium EDTA aka E385 | Digestive issues, Intestinal inflammation, Embryo damage |
| Cheetos (all flavours); Takis (all flavours); Lucky Charms | Sunset yellow FCF aka E110 or yellow 6 | Allergic reactions, Cancer risk, Developmental and reproductive toxicity, Sensitivity reactions |
| Van Holton's Pickles | Yellow 5 aka E102 aka Tartrazine | DNA damage/ cancer risk, Skin irritation, Allergic reactions, Respiratory issues |
| Jolly Rancher Sweets | Mineral oil | Genotoxic and carcinogenic |
Following the latest seizure, council staff attended Westminster Magistrates' Court on October 1 where Basic Mart was fined £3,110.25 and ordered to pay for the cost of incineration on top of this.
Westminster City Council leader Adam Hug told MailOnline yesterday: 'We are continuing to make the lives of unscrupulous traders a nightmare through regular enforcement action and putting pressure on landlords.
'This collection of illegal sweets was enough to send a shiver down anyone's spine.
'There are more raids coming in the next few weeks, so I hope traders who seem happy to sell illegal goods to children are ready for a fright.'
Basic Mart is on the corner of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road which is opposite the Dominion Theatre and across the road from the Elizabeth line station.
The store is also bordered by a Nicholson's pub and McDonald's on one side, and a Burger King and Primark on the other, in an area which has very high footfall.
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During the previous raid in January, officials discovered Swedish Fish and Hot Tamales sweets, which are banned in the UK due to the impact their additive ingredients can have on children.
The team also found supersize vapes with tanks many times the size of the UK legal limit of 2ml and twice the legal amount of nicotine.
Also seized in that raid were fake designer phone covers and potentially dangerous electrical equipment including power banks, chargers and adapters. And heated tobacco was found to be openly on display - not in closed cabinets as the law states.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute issued a warning to parents last November around unauthorised ingredients contained in imported American sweets and fizzy drinks with known links to hyperactivity and cancer in children.
Among the treats imported from the US that have been seized in the UK over the past year because they contained banned ingredients were Mountain Dew drinks; Dubble Bubble; Jolly Rancher gummies and hard candy; Twizzlers and Lemonhead.
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Oxford Street has become blighted by crime and homelessness in recent years having fallen into disrepair with empty shops, littered streets and dwindling numbers of visitors.
US-style candy stores and souvenir shops are at the centre of concerns over the poor quality of the street, with the council having seized more than £1million worth of illegal goods from such outlets on the road since operations began in late 2021.
MailOnline has led the charge to reclaim Oxford Street from candy stores – revealing in June 2022 that a huge tax scam investigation had been launched into more than 30 shops for allegedly avoiding business rates amounting to at least £7.9million.
Last month, London Mayor Sadiq Khan suggested that granting City Hall extra powers over planning on Oxford Street would mean the candy stores and vape shops will be replaced by 'flagship' stores.
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He told MyLondon that the average vacancy rate across London's high streets is 10 per cent – but 14 per cent on Oxford Street, which attracts such outlets.
Problems reached a peak in August last year when West End stores were forced to lower their shutters and lock customers inside after large groups of mainly young men and teens responded to a call on TikTok to join a 'Oxford Circus JD robbery'.
Major retailers to have closed in recent years include Topshop, House of Fraser, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins and Debenhams.
But HMV reopened its old flagship store last November and a new Ikea is set to welcome customers from spring 2025.