A shop's licence to sell alcohol was suspended for three months after counterfeit alcohol was found on the premises.

The council's licensing committee decided to take action against Walthamstow shop E17 Food and Wine at a town hall meeting on Thursday.

The owner was ordered not to buy alcohol from doorstop sellers, introduce of a stock control system and use an ultra violet light to check duty stamps.

In February, the Hoe Street store was one of 50 visited  by Trading Standards and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs officials.

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.

Licensing officer Marc Witham 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.”