Clamp down on smugglers
An initial report by the UK customs office, HMRC, has found that illicit wine has cost the exchequer at least £350m in the country's 2011-12 financial year, and possibly as much as £700m.
As with other forms of alcohol, most of the money is likely being lost via wine that has been 'smuggled' into the UK by 'organised criminal gangs' without anyone paying duty on it.
Officials have already redoubled efforts to catch illicit alcohol at UK borders. They seized 12.7m litres of alcohol in the UK's last fiscal year, to the end of March 2013.
