102 crimes involving Buckfast Tonic Wine

THE infamous Buckfast Tonic Wine has been mentioned in over one hundred PSNI crime reports over the past four years.

The wine is made by Benedictine monks in Devon, contains phosphate salts and caffeine, and was originally developed as a tonic wine.

But it has since developed a reputation due to its popularity with teenage binge-drinkers and some politicians in Northern Ireland and Scotland have called for action to curb its use.

It now emerges the wine was a factor in a total of 102 incidents recorded by the PSNI since 2006.

Buckfast bottles were used 21 times as a weapon, according to the PSNI, although just eight of the incidents were deemed as violent crimes. The information was obtained by way of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

The PSNI stated: "Since 2006 there have been 102 incidents involving Buckfast Tonic wine. The statistics provided relate to validated crimes where Buckfast was mentioned in the initial report to police and where the bottle was used as a weapon.

"There may have been other instances where a Buckfast bottle was used and this would have been revealed later as part of the investigation and therefore would not be included.

"Occurrences involving Buckfast classified as 'street drinking' or 'rowdy/nuisance persons' were not examined as they are not crimes."

Just eight of the offences were deemed as violent crimes although a Buckfast bottle was used 21 times as a weapon.

The misuse of Buckfast has not reached the nadir it has in Scotland.

Buckfast was mentioned in 5,638 crime reports in Strathclyde Police reports from 2006-2009, equating to three a day on average. One in 10 of those offences were violent and the bottle was used as a weapon 114 times in that period.

The Community of Monks at Buckfast Abbey responded to this state of affairs by stating: "It is a matter of great sadness for us, the monks of Buckfast Abbey, to contemplate the conditions prevalent in the Strathclyde area and our sympathy goes out in particular to the victims of those who abuse alcohol."