The bottles of vodka were branded with Glen’s and Kommissar labels. The word “bottled” was misspelled, appearing as “Botteled.” The Kommissar vodka bottles also had fake duty-paid labels. Several samples of the alleged vodka were tested and found to contain dangerously high levels of isopropanol, which is used as an industrial solvent, and butanol, found in paint thinners.
The bottles were being sold under the pretense that the vodka was a cheap, duty-free alcohol, but authorities say the drink could make people seriously ill or even kill someone. Luton Borough Councillor Aslam Khan is very concerned, and according to the BBC said, “It is very worrying to find these dangerous products on sale locally. “Many unsuspecting consumers may think they are buying cheap duty-free alcohol, when they are actually buying fake and dangerous products.”
About the same time the Luton bottles were being confiscated, a raid on an illegal factory in Derbyshire led to the discovery of 20,000 empty bottles, a filling machine and several empty cans of anti-freeze. A number of bottles of Smirnoff vodka containing a chemical used in anti-freeze were pulled from the shelves of the Weston-super-Market in Somerset.
The number of cases involving the making and selling of counterfeit alcohol has risen over the last five years. Officials say it has gotten so bad that over the past summer, 73 percent of all trading standards investigations were for illegal production of alcohol. An investigation into the source of the illicit vodka in Luton has been launched, and it is believed the culprit is a “white van man.”
The Trading Standards Institute warns consumers to remember the “Four-P’s.” That is: “Place, Price, Packaging, and Product.” Obviously this means buying from only a reputable shops, and remembering the old saying, “If the price is too good to be true, then it probably is.”
