The potable stuff from Welsh Water has played a role in exposing a scam involving bottled water, a businessman called Ralph Searl, Blenheim Palace, a farm in Carmarthenshire and a factory in Blaenau Gwent.
Confused? Well, read on.
Fifty-seven-year-old Searl has just been fined £6,000 with costs of £65,000 at Cardiff Crown Court for selling bottled water as coming from Blenheim Palace when it could have come from his Welsh farm or from the mains supply to his factory in Blaenau Gwent.
The court heard that Searl had a contract with Blenheim Palace to sell its water under the Oxfordshire estate's own label.
The bottles were manufactured at his factory at Aberbeeg and sent to Blenheim where they were filled with mineral water and sealed by workers on the estate before being delivered back to him for selling.
However, in 2007 there were complaints from customers about the taste of some of the bottled Blenheim water. The court heard that Searl had replaced the water, claiming it was necessary because the bottles had been used too soon after manufacture.
But local trading standards officers became involved and two bottles of water were analysed.
The tests showed the water was not from the Blenheim Palace estate but had characteristics similar to water from a spring on Searl's own farm in Wales and to the mains tap water at his factory.
Searl's defence counsel, Robert Buckland, insisted that it was not "a deliberate attempt to hoodwink customers".
Judge Wynn Morgan was not impressed. He said Searl's behaviour amounted to "criminal negligence" because there was "a complete lack of any checking that these bottles were going out and obtaining water where they were purported to be from".
Corking!

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