Vintage wine fraud on the increase

The UK authorities are becoming more way of vintage wine fraud with many experts believing that the 2009 crop of French wine in particular is attracting the unwanted attention of scammers and fraudsters. This comes only days after the Metropolitan Police Fraud Squad undertook a major operation in London and Hertsfordshire which saw eight arrests in an alleged £3 million wine fraud scam. It is alleged that over 50 victims paid figures between £25,000 and £100,000 to acquire cases of Australian wine which never actually existed. Even though the authorities reacted swiftly to this particular allegation there are concerns within the industry of more dubious activities under the surface.

While not necessarily the choice of every investor in the UK and around the world, fine wine has proved to be a very good investment of late with the Live-ex 100 fine wine index having tripled over the last five years against a return of just 15.9% on the FTSE 100 index. However, before you rush out and acquire your wine investment it is not as easy as it may seem on the surface and many people have lost significant amounts of money dabbling in the fine wines market. As with any potential acquisition you should take professional advice before entering any investment market.