Gangs who smuggle alcohol into Britain are using the cover of ice cream vans, parked cars or council houses to sell it to children as young as eight, a report reveals.

The British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) says a massive increase in the amount of beer, wines and spirits smuggled from the continent has led to a disturbing rise in underage alcohol abuse.

Smuggled beer is being sold illegally from ice cream vans for as little as 20p per can, the report said.

The BII pointed to a recent case in Coventry where a couple were convicted of evading duty after investigators recorded them selling alcohol to adults, teenagers and young children through the window of their council house.

BII director Mary Curnock Cook said: "There is hard proof that smuggling is hitting those in society who are most vulnerable - children and teenagers.

"We have a situation where very young children gain unrestricted access to alcohol.

"This hasn't happened since Victorian times and it is due to organised crime being encouraged by the differential in duty."

Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool has seen 20 cases of alcohol poisoning among children in the last year alone.

Labour MP Jane Griffiths, who chairs the all-party group looking at beer smuggling, said the problem was "profoundly shocking".

She said: "There has been work done in Liverpool and Coventry to show that this is happening, and that children as young as eight are able to get hold of alcohol through front windows of houses, from ice cream vans and that they are drinking on school playgrounds.

"What is happening in Liverpool isn't unique to Liverpool. I am sure that this is happening everywhere in the country.

"It is a clear sign of the damage that smuggling is doing to all of us, to our children."

Ms Griffiths said the government had put a lot of resources into customs and excise to track down the "Mr Bigs" who run smuggling operations, and it would continue to do so.

The BII, which represents more than 17,000 publicans, said the gap between alcohol duty levels in Britain and the continent had to be narrowed to stamp out the burgeoning black market and associated crime.