Pubs cheat on branded spirits

More than one in three pubs may be passing off cheap, illegally imported spirits as top brands.

Routine checks of 50 pubs by trading standards officers in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets since April have found 18 premises serving spirits that were not what they said on the label.

Brands that had been swapped for inferior substitutes included Smirnoff vodka, Bell's whisky and Gordon's gin.

Trading standards officer Bridget Rushmoor said the inferior liquor could have come either from "booze cruise" importers, supermarkets or cash and carries. "There are vans travelling around to pubs offering it at the back door," she claimed.

Tom Woods, chief chemist at Smirnoff, said figures from trading standards offices across the UK indicated that one pub in 10 was substituting inferior products for Smirnoff. The figure has risen from around 8% of pubs two years ago.

Both IDV, which owns the Smirnoff brand, and United Distillers, which produces Gordon's and Bell's, said they worked closely with trading standards officers to help catch offenders.