BOOTLEGGING IN BRITAIN

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIV, Issue 3238, 4 December 1930, Page 7

BOOTLEGGING IN BRITAIN

WHISKY AT FIVEPENCE A GALLON. The Sunday Express discloses that . Customs and Excise officers are now engaged in a systematic search for hundreds of illicit whisky stills known to be ir. existence in London and provincial cities. Recently many private houses have been under observation, and the movements of their occupants and visitors closely watched. The officer* are faced with a difficult task owing to - the ingenious ruses adopted by distributors of the illicit whisky. A motor van pulled up outside a house in a London suburb and unloaded a number of petrol cans. It was dusk and the street was almost deserted. The unloading occupied only a few minutes, and the van was driven away, having delivered gallons of sixty over-proof spirit. After a brief period had elapsed a private car left the garage at the side of the house loaded with the cans which the driver distributed to his customers in the district. This is the method of distribution used by the majority of illicit distillers because petrol cans excite little no suspicion and risk of detection is slight. Investigations show that the chief centres of the illicit trade are London , Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff, Hull, Birmingham and Bristol.

Profits on illicit spirit are enormous. A gallon costs 6d to make and is sold for £2 10s, a gross profit of 12,000 per cent. Inquiries are also being made into the source of supply of perfumes which have been on sale at a number of shops and stalls. The perfumes are made with 60 over-proof spirit, and are marketed at a cost that cannot embrace the legal duty. The increasing output of illicit spirit is seriously affecting the revenue. Every 100 gallons of 60 overproof spirit sold means a loss of £7OO in duty.