The likely distribution of the product is not yet known but the report has been on sale in an independent non-Spar retail outlet and the Council will publish further information on its website when it becomes available.  Bottles have so far been found in Northumberland and north London.  Spar brand Imperial vodka sold in Spar (UK) Ltd stores is not affected.

The counterfeit bottles can be identified by the label, which is a copy of an old pre-2007 version of Spar 70cl Vodka with an incorrect Duty stamp which does not fluoresce under UV light.  The body text is blurred in some places, especially around the back label text, and images are slightly blurred.  The word Spar only appears on the back label in very small print.

The glass bottle is ‘Quinn Glass’, identified by the code QI:1445c and has a smudged inkjet code reading which looks like 102234 04/08/02.  Legitimate bottles are ‘Rockware’ glass bottles containing the following information ‘700ml66mm’ followed by two symbols and then the numbers 8809.  The attached photographs show the correct identification of the bottles compared to the counterfeit ones.