Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Popular Aberdeen restaurant accused of selling watered-down gin and vodka

La Lombarda restaurant on King Street, Aberdeen.
La Lombarda restaurant on King Street, Aberdeen.

A popular Aberdeen city-centre restaurant is facing allegations it sold watered-down and counterfeit alcoholic drinks to the public.

Italian restaurant La Lombarda is accused of selling gin and vodka that was not the brand it suggested and that its alcohol percentage was less than advertised.

The charges state that a La Lombarda boss replaced Gordon’s Dry Gin and Smirnoff Triple Distilled Vodka with another, less alcoholic spirit but advertised and sold them as the well-known brands.

It is claimed the alleged food regulation breaches were discovered on March 21 2019 when the King Street restaurant was visited by an environmental health officer, who ordered and was sold the drinks.

The restaurant and its owner deny all the charges against them.

La Lombarda, King Street, Aberdeen.

Restaurant boss allegedly failed to hand over details of who supplied booze

The case, which called at Aberdeen Sheriff Court today, accuses La Lombarda’s managing director Nabil Naoum, the restaurant and its holding company of falsely putting drinks on display that were not Gordon’s Gin or Smirnoff Vodka.

The restaurant is facing additional charges that it sold drinks that were less than the 37.7% alcohol by volume (abv) measure and did not have the “nature, quality or substance” of either Gordon’s Gin or Smirnoff Vodka.

The restaurant and its 41-year-old managing director are also charged with later failing to hand over information about who supplied the alcohol to Environmental Health on December 19, 2019, breaching food regulations.

Aberdeen Sheriff Court

Boss of popular Italian has court date next year

La Lombarda, which claims to be the UK’s oldest Italian restaurant, opened in Aberdeen in 1922 and is situated on the corner of King Street, the Castlegate and Union Street in the heart of Aberdeen.

It was first run by Joe and Nan Birnie, who came from Italy’s northern region of Lombardy before passing the business over to their daughter and son-in-law.

The restaurant was taken under new management in 2016.

Sheriff William Summers ordered La Lombarda Aberdeen Limited, Lombarda Ltd and Nabil Naoum, of Wellington Street, Aberdeen, to appear at Aberdeen Sheriff Court next year.

For all the latest court cases in Aberdeen, as well as the latest crime and breaking incidents, join our new Facebook group HERE.