A popular Aberdeen city-centre restaurant is facing allegations it sold watered-down and counterfeit alcoholic drinks to the public.
Italian restaurant La Lombarda is accused of selling gin and vodka that was not the brand it suggested and that its alcohol percentage was less than advertised.
The charges state that a La Lombarda boss replaced Gordon’s Dry Gin and Smirnoff Triple Distilled Vodka with another, less alcoholic spirit but advertised and sold them as the well-known brands.
It is claimed the alleged food regulation breaches were discovered on March 21 2019 when the King Street restaurant was visited by an environmental health officer, who ordered and was sold the drinks.
The restaurant and its owner deny all the charges against them.
Restaurant boss allegedly failed to hand over details of who supplied booze
The case, which called at Aberdeen Sheriff Court today, accuses La Lombarda’s managing director Nabil Naoum, the restaurant and its holding company of falsely putting drinks on display that were not Gordon’s Gin or Smirnoff Vodka.
The restaurant is facing additional charges that it sold drinks that were less than the 37.7% alcohol by volume (abv) measure and did not have the “nature, quality or substance” of either Gordon’s Gin or Smirnoff Vodka.
The restaurant and its 41-year-old managing director are also charged with later failing to hand over information about who supplied the alcohol to Environmental Health on December 19, 2019, breaching food regulations.
Boss of popular Italian has court date next year
La Lombarda, which claims to be the UK’s oldest Italian restaurant, opened in Aberdeen in 1922 and is situated on the corner of King Street, the Castlegate and Union Street in the heart of Aberdeen.
It was first run by Joe and Nan Birnie, who came from Italy’s northern region of Lombardy before passing the business over to their daughter and son-in-law.
The restaurant was taken under new management in 2016.
Sheriff William Summers ordered La Lombarda Aberdeen Limited, Lombarda Ltd and Nabil Naoum, of Wellington Street, Aberdeen, to appear at Aberdeen Sheriff Court next year.
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