Amy WinehouseAmy Winehouse’s dad has said he hopes the recent video leak showing the singer smoking crack will be a wake-up call for his famous daughter.

Yesterday the Sun released the video, filmed at a party in the early hours of last Friday, showed Amy reportedly snorting drugs then smoking crack through a glass pipe.

Initial reports after the story broke claimed that Amy had already entered rehab treatment but her spokesperson denied the stories explaining that she is just seeing a doctor at a private clinic on an outpatient basis as part of her ongoing “physical health issues”: “It was a regular appointment which she attends all the time. She has not checked in overnight.”

But Mitch Winehouse hopes that the footage will encourage his daughter to seek help: “The video of Amy taking drugs may well be the best thing that has ever happened to her.”

“Of course it kills me to see my daughter on the front page of newspapers like that. It’s nothing short of devastating - thinking she wants to destroy herself. She’ll be heartbroken about it all. But for all the hurt and pain, it may finally be the thing to focus her mind and convince her to get the help she needs to quit for good.”

“No one recognises the problems more than her and seeing images of herself like that may make the difference. The moment she says the words, ‘Right Dad go, this is it’, there will be an avalanche of support for her. The plans have been in place for a long time.”

“The painful thing is how well she’s been doing in the past few weeks. Amy has some of the best doctors in the world looking after her. I know they’d been pleased with her progress. But obviously, in the light of this, we may have to ramp up that support. Amy is very sick.”

However, the video may prompt others into action too: a Metropolitan Police spokesperson confirmed last night that they had requested a copy of the full video and were “viewing the footage to ascertain whether any action needs to be taken”.

The video may also mark the final straw in Amy’s attempts to gain a work visa for the US in order to perform at next month’s Grammy Awards. The visa was already being questioned after her arrest for possession of marijuana in Norway last year and a source told the Daily Mail: “While it does not immediately mean a refusal, [the video] is one of the issues they go into when processing visa applications and she will be treated just like anyone else.”