Under-age drink crackdown leaves licensees bitter

Littlehampton Pubwatch chairman Paul Crease said only three of the town's 26 pubs were involved in the operation, undermining police claims that under-age drinking in the town's pubs is on the rise.

During the operation, which took place on Friday, September 2, police sent two volunteers, a boy and girl aged 15 and 16, into the selected pubs to try to buy drinks in the presence of plainclothes officers.

On each occasion, the member of bar staff who served the alcohol was immediately given an 80 fixed-penalty notice.

The licensees were then reported for the offence of allowing the supply of alcohol, and may be prosecuted.

Arun police commander, Chief Insp Brian Bracher, said: "Despite the fact that police have already been undertaking robust licensing visits across the district, these results have shown that a covert test purchase operation is beneficial.

"The 80 has a big impact for bar staff and, hopefully, the issuing of these notices will ensure that they are aware that it is also their personal responsibility to check for age, no-one else's, and they will be the ones suffering the consequences if they don't.

"However, we will also be dealing with and challenging the licensees and pub owners."

He added: "We have been working with licensees through the local Pubwatch schemes and therefore the results of the operation are very disappointing."

Mr Crease said: "Out of the 26 pubs in Littlehampton, only three were tested. Unfortunately, they were found to be serving alcohol to under-age drinkers, which is a serious matter, but there were another 23 pubs which weren't tested.

"I have had no notification from the police about this. The first I heard about the report was yesterday, from the Gazette.

"We don't agree with this style of operation, but we do welcome its results in finding out if there's still a problem.

"Licensees have got to take a far more positive approach in dealing with this problem and a lot of that comes down to staff training.

"It is an offence to try to buy alcohol if you are under-age and anyone caught doing so will be detained by landlords and the police called."

He added that anyone found buying alcohol under-age would be banned from Littlehampton pubs by Pubwatch for three years from when they reached 18. If a 17-year-old was caught, they would face not being able to drink in pubs in their area until they were 21.

Insp Mark Hammond, of Littlehampton police, said: "It's true that only three pubs were tested and those were chosen as part of ongoing intelligence.

"Under-age drinking in pubs is not a major epidemic in Littlehampton, but it is an issue.

"My main concern is the sale of alcohol to under-age drinkers from off-licences and the like. There's also the fact that parents are buying alcohol for their children.

"We've had reports from residents in Rustington of parents dropping off their children with bags of alcohol to hang around on the seafront. It's not just a pub issue, it's a community issue."

The results come just weeks after the couny council's trading standards service reported that sales of alcohol to under-age children have tripled in West Sussex so far this year.

Of the 55 checks on supermarkets, convenience stores and off-licences earlier this year, 13 resulted in a sale of alcohol to children, 23.6 per cent of the total, compared with 8.4 per cent last year.