A MARRIED couple who owned a Bournemouth off-licence swindled their customers with potentially dangerous counterfeit booze.

Salman Isbir, of Wimborne Road, and Elif Gunduz, of Highfield Road, were found guilty of six charges of selling counterfeit wine and four charges relating to the sale of illegal Drop vodka on Thursday at Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court.

While Gunduz, the mother of three young sons, was handed a fine of £2,065 in total for her part in the ploy, husband Isbir, from whom she is separated, will be sentenced on July 25 and may face prison.

Prosecutor Duncan Milne told the court that 36 bottles displaying fake Jacob’s Creek labels were seized from Isbir UK Ltd shops in Old Christchurch Road and Wimborne Road during inspections in June, August and December 2011.

Mixed in among genuine bottles of wine, the counterfeits had obvious spelling errors on their labels.

A bottle of Drop vodka from the Wimborne Road store purchased in November 2011 was found to contain about 25.3 per cent alcohol by volume, well below the 37.5 per cent required to label the liquid as vodka, as well as the harmful chemical methanol.

Isbir also sold 126 bottles of the vodka to brothers Hamza and Harun Oturak for their West Howe kebab shop after the seizure in November, for which they paid him around £800.

Magistrate Christopher Davidge said it ‘beggared belief’ that the defendants, who are now separated, didn’t realise the wine was fake.

He added: “We are satisfied that both you [Isbir] and Ms Gunduz were negligent in stocking, having for display and offering for sale Drop vodka with misleading and false labels.”

Isbir, 42, was then the business owner, while Gunduz, 42, was company secretary.

On December 2, 2011, one day after the third batch of counterfeit wines was seized, the company was bought by Ms Gunduz and renamed Bournemouth Convenience Stores Ltd, although no money changed hands.

Sentence sends message Andy Sherriff, trading standards manager for Bournemouth Borough Council, said: “Although the sentencing reflects the poor financial position of Ms Gunduz, it sends the message of their guilt and their joint liability.

“The bench was utterly convinced that neither of the defendants were telling the truth. We are delighted with this verdict.”