Licensed premises warned over selling alcohol to under 18s

Message from Humberside Police:

Selling alcohol to under 18s is illegal and in a recent operation 28 off-licence premises were visited following information suggesting they had been selling alcohol to young people illegally.

We made test purchases at each of the 28 premises and seven of them sold alcohol to our police cadets and special constables.

Speaking after the operation Community Safety and Licensing Sergeant Lee Newton said, “We have had lots of information coming in from our communities about anti-social behaviour of young people who had reportedly being buying alcohol from local shops across the Humberside Police area.

“Officers gathered these pieces of information together and throughout July visited each of the suspected premises.

“We recruited our young police cadets and special constables to go into the stores and make ‘test purchases’ of alcohol.

“Out of the 28 premises visited in July seven of them sold alcohol to our young people.

“One premise in Hull, two in Grimsby, one in Cleethorpes and three in Scunthorpe all breached licencing laws when they sold these young people alcohol.

“Many of our local residents have told us about children causing anti-social behaviour and trouble in the local area because of having access to alcohol and it’s something I know causes problems in our communities.

“The offending licensees will be receiving a warning letter and we will be working with them to make sure they tighten up their company policies around ‘Challenge 25’.  The Challenge 25 scheme is set up for all retailers to ask for ID for anyone that looks under 25 year-old, to prevent young people getting access to alcohol. 

“We will be revisiting each shop to make sure they are adhering to the law and will take any necessary action against them if they are found not to be complying with their license to sell alcohol.

“These operations serve as a warning to all licenced premises and we will continue to regularly conduct test purchase operations in the future. Anyone found operating outside of the law can face losing their license or face prosecution.

“This operation also praised the good work of the 21 stores that refused our young people when they attempted to buy from them.  All of these stores have been contacted directly and congratulated on the professional management of their premises.”

Want to find out more about licencing laws? https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/facts/alcohol-and-the-law/buying-alcohol