TRADING standards officers have warned that bottles of bootleg whisky, laced with enough methanol to cause blurred vision, respiratory difficulties, dizziness or even induce a coma, could have found their way on to shop shelves in the region.

Officers in Hackney, London, have recovered fake bottles of Johnnie Walker Black Label, thought to have been imported from Spain.

But there is real concern that some of the bogus bottles may now be circulating elsewhere in the country and drinkers who may already be stocking up for Christmas have been warned to be on their guard.

The bogus bottles have a rear label printed in Spanish and the fake lot code LO4P24878342 printed on the rear of the centre label.

The word distillers on the neck label is incorrectly spelled as distilleries while the counterfeit bottles have no E mark on the base between 700ml and 73mm.

Off-licences across the region have already been alerted, but it is feared some bootleg bottles could still find their way on to the black market.

Symptoms of methanol poisoning can be delayed for several hours so anyone who may have drunk the whisky may not be immediately aware of the damage it can do.

Anyone who finds a counterfeit bottle should contact their trading standards officers straight away.