Beware imitations

Police are telling people not to buy alcohol except through reputable retailers after a huge rise in sales of fake alcohol products.

Investigators are warning that people risk blindness and liver failure if they drink imitation spirits products containing methanol, chloroform and cleaning products.

Trading standards officers have revealed that the number of imitation alcohol products retrieved from small shops and independent off licences has rocketed as people turn to cheap substitutes in the recession.

Vodka in particular is being passed off as a big label product when in actual fact it has been home produced.

This has long been a problem for the drinks industry. Diageo has armed trading standards with a testing kit to identify cheap imitation alcohols in drinks such as Gordons and Smirnoff.