Dad faked attack to shock Winehouse 

Source: ReutersAmy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse's father says he once pretended to have an heart attack, to try to shock his daughter off drugs.

Ex-taxi driver Mitch Winehouse took the drastic measure because he "didn't know which way to turn" to convince his troubled daughter to seek help for her addiction to heroin.

"I pretended I was seriously ill and even got our doctor to tell Amy that I was dying," he says.

"Once I even started screaming and said I was having a heart attack, but it didn't work. Amy's not stupid and she wanted to see my medical records proving I was actually ill."

Winehouse faked the health scare last August because his daughter was so tightly in the grip of addiction she would not leave her room.

"She was claustrophobic, agoraphobic. Phobic of everyone and everybody. People were even throwing drugs over the fence and up to her window for her," he says.

Since then the Back to Black singer has embarked upon a course of drug replacements and last November agreed to enter a clinic to help her get clean.

Mitch Winehouse insists his daughter has been free of drugs since last December but he is now worried about her drinking.

"Her tipple of choice is Jack Daniel's and coke and when she and her friends get together she can drink too much. But she tells me it's something which she will stop - and I believe her. She did it with drugs, so she can do it with alcohol."