TWO Burnley shopkeepers who sold potentially-lethal bootleg vodka have been fined.

Nasir Mahmood and Asif Javed admitted offering the toxic 'Kremlin' vodka for sale for just £7.99 a litre at their shop in Raglan Road.

Reedley magistrates heard the drink, which contains 16 times the legal limit of methanol, left one customer suffering vomiting and stomach cramps.

Methanol is a form of alcohol used as an anti-freeze, solvent and fuel and is put in bootleg vodka as a way of generating alcohol content without the need for distillation. Drinking it can cause abdominal pain, vomiting, blindness and can even be fatal.

In 2001, 58 people died in Estonia after drinking bootleg vodka. Tests on the Burnley vodka showed it was unfit for human consumption.' Mahmood, 29, of Raglan Road, also admitted selling fake cigarettes and tobacco from the shop in Raglan Road, as did shop assistant Qaiser Mahmood.

The court heard the fake packets of Mayfair, Lambert and Butler and Golden Virginia tobacco had no health warnings on and were found by Trading Standards officers in a secret compartment in a hollowed out window sill.

Nasir Mahmood pleaded guilty to seven charges under the Trade Description Act and Food Safety Act and was fined £560 with £515 costs.

Asif Javed, 44, of Colne Road admitted four charges and was fined £320 with £373 costs. Qaiser Mahmood, 29, of Raglan Road was fined £160 with £255 costs.

The court heard that Trading Standards launc-hed an investigation after a customer of a Coal Clough Lane shop, which Mahmood and Javed also own, bought a bottle of Foreman's Fine Old Whisky, but refused to drink it because of the taste.

Investigators who went to the shop discovered more whisky, not found to be contaminated, but contra-vened the Trade Descript-ions Act by failing to display a proper label. The inquiry shifted to the Raglan Road shop after student Christop-her Knight went to Trading Standards to complain when his brother became ill after drinking the vodka.

Nick McNamara, of Lancashire Trading Standa-rds, said after the case: "This was a complicated investigation.

"We are pleased with the outcome, particularly given that the goods were unsafe."