The A to Z of fakes

In july last year, five men were incinerated in an instant, after the Lincolnshire warehouse where they worked exploded. Chemicals found inside the burnt out unit at Broadfield Lane Industrial Estate in Boston indicated alcohol was being produced illegally. Several months earlier, Trading Standards, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and police seized cigarettes and drink, including counterfeit vodka, from six shops in the town. Lincolnshire County Council said at the time that tests on the fake vodka showed it contained cleaning fluid and was "unfit for human consumption". Before this high-profile incident, most people associated bootleg liquor with the prohibition era of the 1920s in America, which led to the rise of organised crime on an unprecedented scale to supply the seemingly indestructible public craving for alcohol.