The counterfeit alcohol that is sold in off-licences enters the retail market from the backs of vans across the country. Counterfeit alcohol tends to be rebottled wine, where cheaper wine is poured into a more expensive bottle, or fake alcohol made in illegal factories in the UK.
“It’s a growing problem, which we are getting more and more intelligence about,” says Trading Standards officer Linda Plested, “but the real problem is you don’t know what’s in it.”
Some of the illegally made vodka has been found to contain high levels of methanol, which is used to make anti-freeze and some fuels. Drinking high doses of it can cause dizziness, breathing difficulties and even blindness.
“There is evidence that the counterfeiting of alcohol in the UK is being taken over by organised gangs, setting up factories and making alcohol on an industrial scale, which then gets shipped out to off-licences, pubs and clubs,” says alcohol industry spokesman David Bolt. His trade group, the International Federation of Spirits Producers, works with alcohol brands to protect them from counterfeiting.
It is not always possible to know when alcohol is counterfeit, but there can be risks to health, according to Stuart Crookshank from HMRC Inland Detection, which oversees the detection and raiding of illegal alcohol operations.
“If you’re playing with alcohol, it’s a pretty toxic product anyway even under health and safety conditions and properly manufactured,” he said.
“You do it in some backroom distillery where the conditions are absolutely dreadful and the product, you don’t know where it’s come from. It’s positively dangerous.”