Old candy for sale with fake labels. VAT and tax figures. That is what environmental inspectors in Malmö have discovered at several Malmö wholesalers. Environmental management has given a ban on sales of up to 100 tonnes of fake and old candy in recent years.

SVT News Skåne told us about this summer.

The environmental management inspectors in Malmö had in 2017 and 2018 noticed how several wholesalers in the city had thousands of empty plastic boxes in the store. At the same time, there were candy with fake labels on the shelves for sale. Upon closer examination of the invoices, it was also found that the wholesalers had traded with goalkeeping companies, especially Denmark.

In total it was about tons of old candy which is suspected to have been resold in fake packaging.

One of the wholesalers in Malmö sold candy for DKK 9.5 million to Danish goalkeeping companies. Photo: Fredrik Svenningsson

- It's about remarkably large quantities. We have forwarded a couple of these cases to the police, Arvid Nordland told SVT this summer.

Police notified three wholesalers - investigations have been closed

As the counterfeit candy violates several food safety rules, Malmö City police notified the three wholesalers. The inspectors also suspected that it was about trademark infringement and fraud.

At the same time, the Swedish Tax Agency has made investigations against most companies for tax violations.

On boxes with the candy m & m: s, a chocolate covered peanut, stated that the product "may contain traces of peanuts". Photo: Environmental Management, Malmö City

But now the message from the prosecutor has come: All three cases are closed.

This is partly due to the fact that crimes cannot be substantiated, and partly because two out of three companies have gone bankrupt and representatives cannot be obtained.

- The crimes were committed before January 1, 2019, when there were only fines in the food crime penalty scale. Then the police do not have as much opportunity to investigate the crimes. Then two of the companies have gone bankrupt and then it becomes a fine for a company that has no money, says Arvid Nordland at the Environmental Management in Malmö.

On January 1, 2019, the penalty for food crime was increased to a maximum of two years in prison.

SVT News has sought the prosecutor for a comment, without success.