UK: WSA criticises smuggling recommendations

Quentin Rappoport, director of the UK's Wine and Spirit Association, has hit back at last week's announcement by the UK Sentencing Advisory Panel that alcohol smuggling and bootlegging "is a non-violent, non-sexual offence, with no direct personal victim".  The Panel is recommending that smaller scale smugglers are dealt with more leniently by the courts. But Rappoport said: "However small scale, alcohol smuggling is not a victimless crime. Bootlegged alcohol has the potential to get into the hands of underage drinkers since it is a totally unregulated route to market, and this is a matter for serious concern, with wide social consequences.