Two shops could be stripped of their licence to sell alcohol after they were both caught with thousands of counterfeit cigarettes on the premises.

Both E17 Food and Wine and E17 supermarket were visited in February by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and Trading Standards.

On Thursday next week, both will appear before the licensing committee at Waltham Forest council.

Trading Standards have recommended that both have their licences revoked.

E17 Food and Wine in Hoe Street, Walthamstow, was one of 50 shops visited on the day.

Licence holder Mihail Eduard Andrei was not on the premises at the time, but arrived during the investigation.

Around 22,520 cigarettes with foreign language health warnings concealed in bags were found in a store cupboard at the rear of the premises, along with 11.25 litres of illicit spirits.

No documentation showing duty had been paid on the products was available so they were seized by HMRC.

Mr Andrei was given 30 days to show that duty had been paid but to date no receipts have been found.

Marc Witham, licensing officer said: “Counterfeit cigarettes can contain far higher levels of toxic substances found in genuine cigarettes , but have also been found to contain excrement, asbestos, mould and dead insects.

“We believe the safety of the public may have been compromised as when purchasing these products it is unlikely that the licence holder was aware of the original source, meaning he could not be certain if the products were genuine of counterfeit.”

On a packet of 20 cigarettes £3.68 of duty should be paid and £7.90 on a litre bottle of spirit.

E17 Supermarket in Higham Hill Road was also visited on the day.

Over 90 litres of wine, 14,080 cigarettes and 0.9kg of rolling tobacco was seized.

Licence holder, Cem Kaya has not produced any legitimate paperwork for the items since.

Mr Witham said: “An initial search of the premises revealed a small amount of hand rolling tobacco.

“However, a concealed store cupboard was eventually discovered containing cigarettes with foreign language health warnings and more hand rolling tobacco. Next to this cupboard was a large selection of Italian wines, typical of those being sold at two for £5, which it was suspected had not had duty paid on them.

“The licensing Service believes Mr Kaya has little regard for the promotion of the licensing objectives and the premises licence should be revoked.”

Both hearings will take place at the town hall on Thursday.