Tourists who were charged £900 for two packets of sweets led police to discover the largest haul of fake and unsafe goods to have ever been seized from a shop on Oxford Street.
The visitors were escorted back to the shop by police officers to make sure they got a refund from the central London store.
A few days later on 25 April, officers returned and seized £80,000 worth of fake or unsafe goods, Westminster City Council said in a statement.
Adam Hug, leader of the council, said: “We have known for a long time that US candy stores rip off customers, but charging £900 for two packets of sweets is a new low.”
During the raid, two shop assistants ran off and disappeared via a hidden panel in the basement wall which led to a secret room of suspected illegal goods and an escape exit on to the street, Westminster City Council said.
According to the council, the seizures included 2,892 American food items, more than 30,000 cigarettes, 3,182 single-use vapes as well as nicotine pouches, heated tobacco, travel adaptors and power banks.
Food items including cereals and sweets were seized for infringements including lack of labelling and presence of additives banned in the UK.
The cigarettes were not in the legally required plain packaging and were missing the deterrent images which appear on tobacco.
The single-use vapes included products which claimed to be “zero nicotine” and then had nicotine displayed on their list of ingredients.
Other vapes claimed “puff” counts as high as 20,000 with tank sizes four to five times the legal 2ml limit.
The council said the number of mixed candy and souvenir stores on Oxford Street has dropped from a high of 40 in the pandemic to 18 as of March 2025.
Mr Hug said: “Our job is to protect people who visit the West End from being exploited and continuing raids and court appearances will ensure life is sour for the rogue US sweet shop trade.
“Hopefully, the fall in the number of US candy and souvenir shops means the tide is going out on this tatty trade.”
