A third of Burnham-On-Sea’s pubs served drink to children during a special undercover test by police and trading standards bosses.
Police and trading standards bosses organised a number of test purchases at licensees across Burnham earlier this week in a bid to remind local pubs of their responsibilities to the younger community.
Two 16-year-olds attempted to buy alcohol from six pubs on Sunday (December 14th), and two went ahead with the sale. There was also a 100 per cent failure rate for the sale of cigarettes.
PC Pete Wills said: “The Trading Standards operation with Burnham police has been running for some time now and many of the local licensees have received feedback and training, so we are disappointed the fact that this month’s testing resulted in a one third failure rate.”
“It is also illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone under the age of 18, and we so we need to highlight the importance of supervising vending machines.”
“We do, however, commend those that did challenge our buyers – even before they ordered a drink at the bar – and encourage staff and managers to continue to remember their responsibilities, as underage drinking increases vulnerability and can result in those involved becoming either a victim of crime or even committing a crime themselves.”
Inspector Mike Ashwin, from the Somerset Tackling Alcohol Related Crime (STARC) partnership, added: “We are committed to reducing the harm caused by alcohol misuse and would like to remind the families of teenagers that underage drinking can have devastating affects.”
“We understand that everyone is out celebrating during the Christmas holidays, but please do so safely.”
“There is an increasing pressure on all retailers to challenge those who look under the age of 21, and we applaud those that have rigorous procedures in place to ensure only adults are able to purchase alcohol and cigarettes.”
“We are happy to help provide further training to licensees that are interested, but we will always be relentless in pursuing those that do not comply with legislation.”
Those staff members who sold alcohol to the minors were given £80 fines and licensees will be interviewed to investigate whether any further licensing offences have been committed.
