Weekend round-up: Pubs warned of lethal booze scam

Written by Claire Weekes

Monday, 10 November 2008

The Mirror
Pubs and shops have been warned of a potentially lethal bootleg booze scam in the run-up to Christmas. spirits from Eastern Europe are being sold for a fraction of the normal cost, but laced with toxic levels of methanol - a chemical that can cause blindness and even death. Kirov and Glen's vodka are among the spirits to be switched.

The Sunday Times
A child under ten is admitted to hospital to be treated for alcohol-related problems once every three days in England, according to Government figures revealed today. Between 2002 and 2007, a total of 648 under-tens and more than 24,000 under-16s were hospitalised because of excessive intake of alcohol. The figures come from within a parliamentary answer revealed by the Liberal Democrats ahead of the launch (today) of their strategy to tackle underage and binge drinking.

The Sunday Telegraph
Giles Thorley, chief executive of the Punch chain, has thrown a party for 600 people at Wembley Stadium, despite Punch having just announced an £80 million pre-tax loss, after writedowns of nearly £300 million on 491 struggling pubs, which it has put up for sale. Thorley remans in good spirits, bouyed by the recent interest rate cut. S"uch a dramatic cut has to be a good thing and should have a positive effect on sentiment," he says. "People should feel more inclined to go out and have a great Christmas."

Publicans who applied for a reduction in the rateable value of their premises after the smoking ban was introduced in 2007 were turned down on the grounds there had been no material change in the way the pub was used. But the Valuation Office Agency has received legal advice saying that decision was wrong. New guidance states valuers should take the loss of the right for customers to smoke into account when assessing the rateable value of a pub, which could save landlords thousands of pounds a year.

The FT
Recent reports have it that the government is considering creating separate counters - and, inevitably, queues - for alcohol purchases in supermarkets. "Walk of shame" is the catchy name under which this initiative is being touted - the idea being, apparently, that people will be reluctant to buy large quantities of booze if subject to public scrutiny.