Trade told: be on your guard against counterfeit alcohol or risk consequences

The Publican’s Morning Advertiser​ has been contacted by events company operator Neil Winterbottom, who was fined £2,000 after being convicted of selling fake Glen's vodka at an event he hosted last year. Winterbottom said that by raising awareness about the issue, he hoped to spare licensees "the ordeal, embarrassment and large legal fees I have had to go through".

He said: "I have always considered myself a diligent operator, with a good staff training in place, but we still fell short on this occasion. The vodka, which we believed to be genuine, had all the hallmarks of Glen's vodka, a professional-looking label with no spelling mistakes, sealed bottles, what appeared to be genuine boxes, duty-paid stamp and a bar code, so all the normal elements to look out for. After the fateful occasion, and doing lots of research, there seems very little information with hard and fast rules for spotting counterfeit alcohol."

Lack of awareness​

Winterbottom also expressed his concern that many of the licensees and operators he spoke to knew little about lot codes -identification numbers given to batches of drinks by the manufacturer.

"I now know lot codes to be very important but, at the time, I knew nothing about it. When I asked fellow operators, managers and licensees, none of them knew what a lot code was or how to identify it. The only person I asked who knew what it was and how to identify it was a local drinks rep."

A spokesperson from Trading Standards gave the following advice to licensees to help protect themselves from counterfeit alcohol:

• Check the lot code. A lot code is made up of numbers and sometimes includes letters. Every bottle supplied for the UK market should have a lot code because this is how a product can be traced back to its place and date of manufacture. Lot codes will be printed on the bottle or label (sometimes on the underneath of a label), or be laser etched on the bottle.

• Check the label. It should be of a high standard. Badly printed labels should be avoided. Labels should be straight and should not contain any spelling mistakes.

• If you have several bottles of the same size and brand, the contents should be almost at the same level (the fill level) and the closed bottle tops should match in colour and design. If several bottles of the same brand and size are supplied in a packing case, the case should be branded with the same brand and bear a lot code. The casing should never be plain packaging. If you have several cases of the same product, the time part of the lot code should vary because this usually relates to the time of manufacture, therefore larger consignments are unlikely to have the same lot code time.