This in from the council. Ed
As part of Alcohol Awareness Week held between 18 – 24 October, Isle of Wight Council Trading Standards and Hampshire Constabulary carried out a series of joint test purchase operation.
A test purchase operation involves an underage customer attempting to buy an illegal product, such as alcohol or fireworks, from local businesses. If the business serves the young person, they are given an on the spot fine and warned of their future conduct.
New Newport off licences serve teen
During one exercise in Newport that involved four off licence shops, two failed to ask the 15 year old girl for ID and sold her alcohol. The other two asked the girl for ID and refused the sale.
Richard Stone, Isle of Wight Council Trading Standards Manager said the results are disappointing, saying “The council and police regularly carry out test purchase operations and the vast majority of businesses successfully ask for ID.
“The results of this particular exercise are therefore very disappointing given we rarely see a business serve an underage customer during these tests.
“The businesses concerned will now be given further advice and guidance on how to spot underage customers and reminded of their responsibilities. These results serve as a reminder to businesses that the authorities take underage sales seriously and carry out these types of exercises frequently.”
We will enforce the law, say Police
Hampshire Constabulary’s Isle of Wight Police Licensing Sergeant Mark Voller said: “In our experience, when alcohol gets into the hands of irresponsible young people, harm can result and anti-social behaviour is fuelled. To prevent this, we are determined to enforce the law on underage sales, and will carry out further test purchasing.
“It is vital that retailers require proof of age from any young person. These lapses might have been avoided if ID had been requested, as is now a legal requirement, promoted constantly by police and our partners. While test purchase failures are disappointing, we congratulate the local retailers who take active steps to avoid selling alcohol to young people.”
Businesses that regularly serve underage customers could face large fines and ultimately lose their trading licence.
Image: MrB-MMX under CC BY-SA 2.0
