'Illegal vodka made me sick for days'

Chris Knight, 21, of Manchester Road, Burn-ley, said he suffered stomach cramps and vomiting for two days after sharing a bottle of Kremlin vodka with his 19-year-old girlfriend.

Chris, said he bought the vodka from a Burnley off-licence on about four occasions, and it was on the last that the illness struck.

He said: "It was a litre bottle which looked like a normal clear bottle of vodka.

"The first time I drank it I felt OK. I was a bit rough the next day but I thought that was normal after drinking vodka.

"On the last occasion we had to come home because we felt so ill."

Chris, who works at Burnley's Asda store, was confined to his bed for two days.

"I had stomach cramps and was up most of the night being sick," he said.

"I didn't think anything of it after that but then I saw something in the paper about the vodka which said to get in touch with Trading Standards if you had any concerns."

The Asda worker also suffered kidney pains some weeks later, which he got checked with his doctor and has now been given the all-clear.

He contacted Trading Standards about his experience and gave officers a bottle of the vodka that he still had at his home.

Two Burnley shop-keepers who sold the vodka were fined, after appearing at Reedley Magistrates Court earlier this week.

Nasir Mahmood and Asif Javed, who own shops in Coal Clough Lane and Raglan Road, admitted offering the toxic vodka for sale at just £7.99 for a litre.

Reedley magistrates heard that the drink contained 16 times the legal limit of methanol - a form of alcohol used as anti-freeze that is put in bootleg vodka to generate alcohol content without distillation.

It can cause abdominal pain, vomiting, blindness and can even be fatal.

Mahmood, 29, of Raglan Road, pleaded guilty to seven charges under the Trade Description Act and Food Safety Act and was fined £560.

Javed, 44, of Colne Road, admitted four charges and was fined £329.