The ebay Laphroaig 30 Fraud and K***********a – Scotch Whisky Fraud
The ebay Laphroaig 30 Fraud and K***********a
An adventure in whisky by an anonymous whisky buyer
In 2004 year during two separate transactions (in March and July) I purchased three bottles of Laphroaig 30 year old from a seller on ebay named K***********a (Mt. K***********a is a fairly large mountain in B******)* for £160 & £120 and duly sent off the payments to him in the Edinburgh area. I directed that the first two bottles be shipped to my friend in Swindon as I live in North America and would not be in the UK until August. For the second transaction in July I asked that the bottle be shipped directly to my hotel in Edinburgh as I would be there in early August. As you may be aware it is illegal to mail alcohol to North America and I did not want to risk having the bottles confiscated and destroyed. All very complicated, but worth it for such fine malt and at such a reasonable price. Yes, I should have known that perhaps the price was a little too good for what I was receiving however there have been some genuine malts sold on ebay lately at very good prices, so this sale fit the trend. When the first two arrived in Swindon I asked my friend if they were in wooden display boxes and she replied no, however I knew that early Laphroaig 30 came without boxes, so all seemed to be on the level. However for the my second transaction K***********a had included a picture of a current Laphroaig 30 including the box but all three bottles were identical without boxes and white instead of green capsules.
During the subsequent months I watched with growing suspicion as the K***********a sold more and more Laphroaig 30’s, Royal Warrant’s and Laphroaig Highgrove’s. He seemed to have a never ending supply so I emailed him and asked if he worked for “Allied” (Allied-Domecq, who own Laphroaig). I know that distillery workers sometimes receive gifts from the employer to mark special occasions and they have been known to sell them to collectors. However he just seemed to have too many bottles. IfK***********a had simply changed his ebay name every two or three sales he might have gotten way scot free, no pun intended. He duly replied to my email and asked who “Allied” was and I replied that “Allied” was the owner of Laphroaig. He then replied “Ah yes, Allied” and that he worked for Chivas as a blender and he was receiving the bottles in trade from his buddies who were blenders at other firms. Now if I know that Allied-Domecq own Laphroaig then I’m almost 100% sure that a blender at Chivas based in Scotland working in the whisky industry should know full well who owns what in the industry.
By now I was really suspicious but there was nothing I could do until I went to Edinburgh in August and collected the bottles. Subsequently I arrived in Edinburgh and the bottles of Laphroaig were waiting for me in my hotel room, my friend in Swindon having timed the shipping perfectly to coincide with my arrival. As I eagerly unpacked the bottles I noticed that the bottle from the second purchase was in a Laphroaig 10 tube with the label stripped off. By this time all alarm bells were ringing at full pitch however a visual inspection of the bottles yielded no clues, the bottles looked 100% genuine. There was only one thing I could do at that point and that was to open a bottle and try some Laphroaig “30”. Now I’ve been fortunate to sample Laphroaig 30 on several occasions and this Laphroaig 30 was simply not right, it actually tasted like the 10 year old, it was not as refined and it did not have the sweet notes that I remembered. Undaunted I forged ahead and drank the rest of the bottle during my visit to Edinburgh, after all it was Laphroaig but not the 30. However with every dram I knew I was not drinking Laphroaig 30 and I’d been defrauded somehow. However I was simply too busy in Edinburgh to do anything about it , that would have to wait.
On my return to North America I further examined the remaining bottles for any flaws that would give me a clue to the fraud and I came up with the idea of emailing the stenciled lot number, LU19855, to Laphroaig via their website and Allied Distillers Limited subsequently confirmed that the lot had been bottled February 2, 2004 for the German market and that it was a bottle of ….10 year old.
Consequently I was in contact with Pete Harvey, Anti Counterfeit Manager for Allied Domecq who instructed me to contact Philip Scatchard, Director of the International Federation of Spirit Producers, the IFSP is an industry body and deals with matters of this nature. I made it clear from the start that I was not looking for compensation from Allied-Domecq and that I simply wanted this person stopped. Philip Scatchard advised me of the following;
“At this stage of the enquiry it is a “Civil Issue” and to elevate it we need you to report the case to Edinburgh Trading Standards/Consumer Services as they are the local enforcement authority to where you received the offending bottle. Would it be possible, on your return to Edinburgh, to take the bottle to the following address and raise an official complaint. This will effectively raise it to “Criminal Status”. It will also help with the chain of evidence and is better than returning the bottle to Allied Domecq.”
This was excellent as I was returning to Scotland in mid September (I know, lucky bast*rd, two trips to Scotland in two months). Pete Harvey drove up from Bristol to meet with me in Edinburgh at the SAS Radisson Hotel to examine the offending bottle. He duly pronounced both the bottle and the labels to genuine however mis-matched as a 30 label should not be on a 10 bottle. We both speculated on how the counterfeiters had acquired the genuine labels which was of great concern to Allied-Domecq. We then drove down to Edinburgh City Council Trading Standards/Consumer Services where we met with two investigators and I swore out an official complaint and turned over the remaining bottle as evidence. In conversation Pete told me a number of interesting things; that Allied-Domecq were bidding on K***********a’s current auction and that K***********a was going to be visited by several branches of enforcement in due course. It was also noted that K***********a had sold more than maximum allowable of 6 bottles in a year without a license. His life was about to become complicated.
I returned to North America the next day and kept an eye on K***********a ebay sales and one day suddenly they all stopped! I took this as good news and that he’d had a visit from the authorities. Pete Harvey later telephoned me to let me know events were progressing nicely but he could not divulge details at the moment but would let me know all the details as soon as he could.
By researching K***********a’s ebay feed back left by him (he seemed to be quite diligent in leaving feedback) for his victims I found 23 transactions involving 27 bottles of various high value Laphroaig’s for a total of £2840 however there were a further 18 transactions that have been closed off and I could not access the details. The potential profit for all 41 can only be speculated on.
They say there is risk in life and there are certainly risks associated with buying over the internet however I have subsequently bought several bottles from different sellers that were all genuine and I will not let one bad seller ruin ebay for me. I also informed ebay as to what the seller had been doing in my case but they could care less, ebay simply wants its commission and could care less than buyers are being defrauded.
Sent to ebay 26/10/2004;
The seller has sold approx 27 bottles of Laphroaig Single Malt Whisky labeled as 30 year old. On inspection these bottles have proved to be 10 year old bootless with 30 year old labels. This has been confirmed with the distillery by the lot numbers laser etched on the bottles. The value the seller has received for these fake bottles is approx. US$5000 and possibly more. I have sworn out a complaint with Edinburgh Trading Standards/Consumer Services against the seller who lives in the Edinburgh area. This complaint effectively raises the issue to criminal status.
Why this seller is still allowed to sell on ebay eludes me as he has defrauded so many buyers, violated Laphroaig’s trademark and spoilt eBay’s name.
I have complained to ebay in the past about this seller (K***********a) without a word. Further more because the fraud was discovered after 90 days I am not covered by ebays buyer protection.
*The ebay name has been edited due to the fact that the current user of the same name on ebay has only been a member of ebay since 2007 and is unrelated to the events described in this article. Subsequently ebay stopped the selling of alcohol in many jurisdictions. This article was originally published closer to the dates listed above and appears here merely for educational purposes.
