(TDB) - Whisky.Auction, an online spirits auctioneer, has said it has uncovered a “large scale” counterfeiting operation of extreme sophistication and an arrest has been made.

The auctioneer explained that during authenticity checks by its team a visit was paid to the private residence of a seller to check the whiskies they wished to consign to a sale.

At the house they became suspicious of the large number of bottles of very valuable spirits they discovered there.

It was quickly suspected that the man was running a counterfeiting operation, refilling bottles of whisky, rum and other spirits, using young liquids in older bottles, “with a level of sophistication never before seen in fraudulent spirits production.”