DRINKERS planning on a cheap night with a bottle of smuggled vodka have been warned: it could ruin your eyesight.

Rogue batches of super strength vodka have been seized at ports in the North East, but experts fear that many of the bottles may have already been distributed to the country's smuggling hotspots - and that includes Preston.

The 18,000 bottles confiscated by customs were found to contain industrial strength methylated spirits, which, if drunk in quantity, can make people blind.

Now locals are being urged to avoid buying the bottles of Royal Crown and Parmer Vodka, no matter how attractive the price.

A spokesman for the North West Brewers and Licensed Retailers Association says smugglers will sell their wares without a thought to the risk it may pose to health.

He said: "Because of high excise duty in this country, bootlegging is popular.

"But this new discovery shows that rogue traders are prepared to endanger lives for a quick profit. It puts a frightening new perspective on this trade. It is big business.

"We only hope this latest seizure will make people contemplating buying bootleg booze think twice before doing so."

Graham Hooker, of Customs and Excise said: "The people involved think of nobody but themselves."

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