It’s common knowledge that you should never get behind the wheel after having an alcoholic drink – and that is even if you feel absolutely fine.

With your reaction time hindered and judgement impaired, there’s also a the risk of a false sense of confidence. Combined, we’re talking brutally devastating consequences.

Now, with Dry January well under way, many are cutting out the booze in a health kick to start of the new year.

And some are turning to non-alcoholic alternatives to keep that social aspect going.

And one particular non-alcoholic brand has produced a tipple that will mimic the effects of alcohol on your brain without you consuming any of the product. But a warning has been issued about drinking it and driving.

This article contains affiliate links and LADbible Group will make a commission on anything purchased

Non-alcoholic Sentia Spirits explained

The drinks we are talking about are created by Sentia Spirits; a line of zero percent drinks that give you that ‘gentle buzz’ without the hangover or negative health effects of drinking alcohol.

Sentia drinks are completely legal to buy and are the brainchild of Professor David Nutt and his team.

Professor Nutt told The Independent: “It’s a drink that is based on the science of alcohol, particularly the low doses of alcohol that relax you and make you more sociable.”

The non-alcoholic alternative is an option for those doing Dry January (Sentia Spirits)

Don’t Sentia and drive

That’s the message from Sentia Spirits’ very own Prof Nutt.

Firstly, Prof Nutt said that Sentia products are positioned as something ‘only for people who are old enough to drink alcohol’ due to how it impacts you as a relaxant. And it is because of this that he says you shouldn’t drive after consuming it, telling Stylist it is ‘probably not sensible’ given its relaxing effect on the body and mind.

The Sentia website echoes its creator’s words. On its frequently asked questions page, it reads: “Some users have reported GABA Red making them drowsy, so we do not recommend driving after consuming GABA Red.

“While there is nothing in the GABA Black blend that should impact driving, we recommend you use your best judgement.”

A Sentia-made negroni (Sentia Spirits)

What is GABA and how does it work?

Dr Suzanne Wylie, GP and medical adviser for IQdoctor, told LADbible that GABA – which stands for gamma-aminobutyric acid – ‘is a neurotransmitter that plays a crucial role in regulating anxiety, relaxation, and social bonding’.

“These drinks often include a blend of botanicals and compounds that can either directly stimulate GABA receptors or promote the production of GABA, leading to a calming effect without the intoxicating side effects of alcohol,” Dr Wylie said.

Working in a similar way to CBD drinks, they ‘target the brain’s natural biochemistry’. She explained: “They may work by enhancing GABA’s ability to bind to its receptors in the brain or by reducing the breakdown of GABA, increasing its availability.”

The best booze alternatives to try now

Best for IPA fans: BERO Variety Pack, £27 (approx)

Tom Holland’s new sober drinks range is a pretty good place to start. The variety pack comes with three booze-free tinnies: Kingston Golden Pils, Edge Hill Hazy IPA, and Noon Wheat. It’s gone down a treat with customers too – just take a look at the five-star reviews if you need convincing.

Best imitation stout: Guinness Zero, £2.83 per can

Guinness fans say this is the closest you’ll get to the real deal – and production of Guinness Zero tripled last year, so you’ll be in good company here.

Best ice-cold lager: Peroni, £4.60 per case

Of course, there was only one place to look. Peroni 0.0% claims to have the flavour of the renowned lager without the booze. It’s only £4.60 for a case, so you’re saving pennies too.

Best IPA variety pack: Lucky Saint, £22 (12 pack)

One of the best non-alcoholic beer brands on the market, Lucky Saint proudly uses centuries-old techniques to create modern beers that give maximum flavour (without the hangover). This pack comes with everything you need to survive Dry Jan: a new Superior Hazy IPA and Superior Unfiltered Lager.

Best real-tasting G&T: Tanqueray Alcohol Free Spirit, £15.90

If your go-to order is a good old G&T, then look no further than Tanqueray. Fans recommend mixing with a mediterranean tonic for best results.

Best booze-free cider: Galipette Brut Dry Cider, £30 per litre

If it’s cider you’re after, then Galipette has hundreds of five-star reviews. One shopper raved: “Wow. This is now my number one alcohol-free cider. I love the balance of sharpness and sweetness which, for me, is spot on.” Sold.

Most impressive rum: Caleño Dark and Spicy, £19

For those who don’t pay when they should, they’re going to get a shock when a knock on the door comes with evidence that they’ve been naughty with their viewing habits.

Since the revelation, Martin Lewis’ MSE issued a warning to anyone who pays for their TV Licence.

While we know that there are some instances that you don’t need to pay, when you do need to and you refuse to, that’s where the issue starts.

How much is the TV Licence and when do you need one?

As the annual TV Licence costs £169.50, and is set to increase by £5 on 1 April this year, it means that the BBC is missing out on even more money when people decide to mark themselves down as not needing a licence.

After a landmark review in to how the BBC is funded (BBC Funding Model Review), it has been labelled as ‘enormous’ by the boss of the BBC.

Any change will come in to play from 2028, meaning for now you have to keep paying as usual if you want to watch specific content.

There are certain reasons why you need a TV Licence or not, with money guru Martin Lewis here to explain everything.

For those who don’t pay when they need to, an undercover technique has been revealed through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

And it has confirmed that ‘covert vehicles’ with ‘detection equipment’ in them are being used to check if you are watching television in a property that doesn’t have a TV Licence.

The FOI from 2022, submitted by the TV Licensing Blog website, reveals that a review in to the methods used is under way through the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office (IPCO).

The documents reveal that contractor Capita carries out the monitoring methods, which are reportedly signed off by people within the BBC.

What the IPCO have said

If not, you’ll be caught out (Leon Neal / Staff / Getty)

But whether it works or not is another matter, with IPCO saying: “The success rate is limited, with only a small number of deployments resulting in further enforcement action, such as the execution of a search warrant.

“This could be due to the limitations of the detection equipment, which is apparently struggling to keep up with the technological advancements in television viewing.”

Author of the TV Licensing Blog, Peter Jones, said the BBC ‘struggling to maintain pace with evolving technology is yet another indication of how outdated, unenforceable and irrelevant the current TV licence system is’.

A spokesperson for TV Licensing said: “TV Licensing’s primary aim is to help people stay licensed, and we offer a range of concessions and payment schemes to support customers. We have a duty to collect the licence fee from anyone who requires one and prosecution is always a last resort.

“Detection vans are one of a number of approaches in our enforcement of the law and we always write to customers before visiting a property to ensure customers have ample opportunity to obtain a licence. We continually refine and enhance all our processes to ensure they are efficient, proportionate and fair.

“We welcome independent scrutiny and informed views on how we can make further improvements.”

Enforcement officers could come to your home (Carl Court / Staff / Getty)

When you do and don’t need to pay for a TV Licence

It’s not wholly simple, with a few cases in both camps.

If you only watch television on-demand that doesn’t include the BBC iPlayer, you don’t need one. That is as long as the content was not recorded from live TV.

If you watch TV as it airs live on any channel – or if you record live TV for another time – you need to pay.

Only watch streaming services like Netflix and Prime Video? You don’t need to pay. But if you watch live content on any streaming app, such as the Premier League on Prime or soon to be WWE on Netflix, you have to cough up.

Like, how on earth did so many people get that wrong on The 1% Club? Or why did they think it was a good idea to take that offer on The Chase?

And why did the contestants on Ant and Dec’s Limitless Win not win the £250,000?

That’s something viewers are fuming about after last night’s (January 11) episode on ITV after an apparent question ‘error’.

Being below the answer means losing lives, and being over the answer means game over and they take however much has already been cashed in from the limitless ladder.

So, Richard and Lorna kicked off the episode having returned from a previous week with a decent £30,000 and 32 lives to their name.

Ant and Dec asked them: “In metres, how long is the electrical cable on a standard Henry vacuum cleaner?”

Now, obviously, even for plenty of us armchair experts, that’s not exactly the most common bit of information right at the forefront of our minds.

But the pair were pretty nifty as they used some skills of deduction before debating between the answer being eight and 10.

In the end, they decided to go with the lower, eight and annoyingly, it was the other. Well, at least according to the show anyway.

If Richard and Lorna had got it exactly right, they would have banked a hefty £250,000 but instead of course lost two lives.

They ended up with £30k. (ITV)

But viewers are demanding ITV to ‘pay up’ for the team as it turns out both of the answers could be right.

It only takes a quick search to discover you can buy replacement cables for Henry hoovers in both 10 and 8.4 metre lengths.

Another slammed: “Pay up @ITV #limitlesswin Clearly they were right!” as one said: “So Henry Hoover cable length is 8.4 metres so why in the show was it 10?

While one just couldn’t believe the question: “Who the hell is gonna know how long a wire on a hoover is.”

Although, backing up the show’s answer, the official myhenry website does list the standard Henry as coming with a 10 metre cable, not eight.

Authorities had hoped that the electronic recording devices would provide an insight into what happened in the final moments before the disaster on 29 December.

The Boeing 737-800 which was carrying 181 people had departed from Bangkok, Thailand, and crashed following an emergency landing at Muan International Airport.

Only two cabin crew members survived the fireball after the jet ploughed into a concrete wall at the end of the runway.

Investigators announced they had began extracting data from one of the black boxes on the Jeju Air jet at the start of the month.

South Korea’s transport ministry said this content from the cockpit voice recorder would then be converted into an audio file.

The second black box – a flight data recorder which was damaged in the crash and missing a crucial connector – was then sent to the US for further analysis.

The Ministry of Transport’s director of aviation policy, Joo Jong-wan, explained at the time: “We have determined that extracting data from the damaged flight data recorder here is not possible.

“And so we have agreed with the NTSB to send it to the US and analyse it there,” he said, according to Yonhap News Agency.

However, in the latest update on the probe into the worst airline disaster South Korea has ever seen, the ministry has revealed that both devices stopped working just minutes before the crash.

Four minutes before the disaster, the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder stopped processing data.

The US National Transportation Safety Board discovered the missing chunk of information while analysing the contents of the black boxes.

But according to South Korean officials, other data was available which could aid the investigation.

As well as this, they reassured families of the victims that the probe would be transparent and information would be shared with them.

Sim Jai-dong, a former accident investigator for the transport ministry in South Korea, said the malfunction of the black boxes was extremely surprising.

He said that it suggests that the aircraft could have lost all power, including backup, which he says would be an ‘incredibly rare’ occurrence.

Black boxes are designed to withstand a lot of trauma and are considered to be almost indestructible.

South Korea’s transport ministry are working to determine what happened to the devices (JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images)

Typically located at the rear of an aircraft, these devices can survive extreme temperatures and underwater immersion, but they are not completely unbreakable.

They collect flight data such as speed, altitude and fuel levels, as well as voice recordings from inside the cockpit.

The devices can also pick up on other sounds such as engine noises and radio transmissions, which was the case with the fateful Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283 crash in August last year.

US aviation expert Frank E Turney explained why the data from black boxes is so important for investigators to get their hands on.

The chair of the aviation department for Capitol Technology University previously told The Guardian: “The [black] box or the flight data recorder is not going to sit there and tell you this is what caused this accident.

“What it’s going to do, it’s going to give you all of the underlying factual data that you can use to try to assess how the accident occurred.

“Sometimes the data that you’re getting from the flight data recorder will be very conclusive on what the cause of the accident was, but most of the time it is going to be a piece of the overall investigation, and not necessarily a slam dunk on ‘this is what caused this accident.'”

According to Turney, there is usually a chain of unfortunate events – known as the ‘accident chain’ – which lead up to an air disaster, rather than one single issue.

He reckons that officials will be looking into the structure of the Jeju Air plane, its mechanics and how the pilots handled the situation.

“They’re going to go through all of that, and then at some point they’re going to sit down and go through all of this information to figure it out,” Turney added.

“But the flight data recorder is usually a fairly sizeable piece of the puzzle that they use to determine the accident.”

According to energy supplier EDF, the cost of running an electric car depends entirely on the make and model, with different vehicles having varying associated costs.

Ultimately though, as more and more cars become electric, owning one is likely to cost you less over a longer period of time, with the cars requiring less maintenance.

The cost of installing one of these outlets varies, but is estimated to be upwards of £900.

Meanwhile, according to Octopus, charging your car at home can cost as little as 3p per mile, around 14p per mile on ‘lamppost chargers’ (which are public, on-street chargers) and around 18p per mile for rapid public charging.

Re-charging times can vary, from anything from one to 10 hours depending on how you charge your vehicle.

Over in the US, one Tesla owner took to X where they showed off a surprisingly low electricity bill.

The user, @Tesla_GTownTX, posted a screenshot of the bill they received, which came in at just $2.37 (£1.89).

“First time I’ve had a bill within the last 12 months. This sucks,” they wrote.

People were baffled as to how the bill was so low, with many wondering if the Tesla owner had other ways of keeping it so cheap.

“How much did you pay for the solar panels and wall battery?” One person asked.

While another said: “Post your statement for your power wall/solar panel payments.”

The user explained they used solar panels to keep the bill low as well as a Tesla Powerwall, which is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that stores energy from solar or from the electricity grid.

“Powerwall gives you the ability to store energy for later use and works with solar to provide key energy security and financial benefits,” say Tesla.

“Each Powerwall system is equipped with energy monitoring, metering and smart controls for owner customisation using the Tesla app.”

The powerwall comes with a price tag, costing somewhere between £5,000 to £10,000.

So while the bills are super low, the initial cost is pretty hefty.