The owner of Bimber and Dunphail distilleries has relinquished his responsibilities at both sites following reports of his arrest in London last month, staff at the distilleries have confirmed.

It emerged this week that Dariusz Plazewski, who co-founded London-based Bimber in 2015 as one of England's first craft whisky distilleries, had been living under pseudonym for 20 years after fleeing his native Poland in 2004 following his conviction for a firearms offence.

But distillery staff have declared that that they remain committed to serving customers with "excellence and dedication" in spite of the incident and have thanked customers, suppliers, and the whisky community for their "continued support and understanding".

A report by the Daily Mail on Monday, which gave Plazewski's real name as Lucasz Ratajewski, claimed he had been arrested by police in London in January and was now facing extradition by the Polish authorities on charges of conspiracy to murder and supplying drugs, as well as to serve the three-year prison sentence handed down for the original firearms offence.

On Thursday, a spokesperson for Bimber and Dunphail distilleries said that Ratajewski — who was referred to as Plazewski in their statement — had relinquished all his responsibilities for both distilleries and had handed over all decision making and operational matters to the existing "experienced" teams. Leading these teams will be Bimber co-founder Ewelina Chruszczyk and Dunphail's director of whisky creation Matt McKay.

"Whilst we understand the news of [Plazewski's] personal legal issues may well raise questions and concerns, we want to assure you that our businesses remain fully operational and committed to serving you with the same level of excellence and dedication as always," the spokesperson said.

"Going forward, Bimber co-founder Ewelina Chruszczyk and Dunphail director of whisky creation Matt McKay will lead the activities of both distilleries together and, drawing from their combined experience of both established businesses, they will work diligently with our dedicated staff to ensure that there is no disruption to our services or the quality of our products. Our management team, along with our staff, are fully capable of steering both companies forward and maintaining our ongoing operations smoothly."