George Cavendish was an Officer from the Health Department who came to the Rovers Return Inn in December 1970 following an anonymous complaint that the spirits had been watered down. He ordered three large scotches, three large gins and three large rums, putting the contents into sampling bottles and telling Annie Walker that they would be split between herself, the Health Department and the Public Analyst for examination. The very public way in which the matter was conducted led to a mass exodus by the customers for several days. The matter was traced to a crooked Newton & Ridley drayman Arthur Burrows who had had a run-in with Billy Walker and to get his revenge had watered down the gin and made the complaint himself.