CRAFTY convicts at a Suffolk jail are under investigation after getting drunk on liquor brewed from Marmite.Inmates at HMP Edmund's Hill in Stradishall, near Haverhill, went on a rampage after using the popular sandwich spread to ferment fruit juice they had hoarded.

CRAFTY convicts at a Suffolk jail are under investigation after getting drunk on liquor brewed from Marmite.

Inmates at HMP Edmund's Hill in Stradishall, near Haverhill, went on a rampage after using the popular sandwich spread to ferment fruit juice they had hoarded.

Prison chiefs have now launched an inquiry into the incident, which led to a team of trained negotiators being called in to the Category-C facility to try to diffuse the situation.

A prison source told a national newspaper the booze had been brewed in secret and hidden before being drunk.

The inmates were left to sleep off the effects of the illicit substance, and were “quiet as mice” by the time negotiators went in to see them the following morning in a secure part of the wing.

Suffolk police were called to the incident at around 4.30am on Friday, as a precautionary measure but a spokeswoman said that although a man was later arrested on suspicion of criminal damage, no further action was taken.

The incident, which resulted in furniture and bathroom fittings being wrecked, comes just five months after a group of 10 prisoners damaged toilets and showers after downing illicit alcohol brewed at the prison.

Guards endured a prolonged stand off with the inmates, after they refused to return to their cells.