A joint test purchasing operation carried out by Devon County Council Trading Standards Service and Devon and Cornwall Police earlier this month has proved a success.
The exercises, which took place in Torrington, Barnstaple and Braunton, were to check whether retailers would illegally sell alcohol to young people following an earlier operation in June.
On the 4 September Officers and a young volunteer visited a total of eleven businesses and all refused to sell alcohol to the youngster. On the following day in Bideford, to coincide with the local Carnival, two of the ten premises visited sold to the volunteer. Both of the sellers were subject to a fine and the businesses will have a follow up test purchase operation. If the offence is repeated they could lose their licence and face prosecution.
This latest operation has seen a third less off licenses selling to under18s compared with a similar operation in Barnstaple and Torrington in June of this year where six out of eighteen off-licenses sold to underage volunteers.
These operations are coordinated through the Devon Alcohol Awareness Partnership, which represents agencies in Devon committed to reducing alcohol related harm. They were part of an ongoing focus on the problems caused by the sale of age restricted products to youngsters. In previous Devon exercises, approximately 40% of pubs and clubs have sold to those underage compared with 20% of high street retailers.
In the last year, the County Council’s Trading Standards Service has helped and advised all premises selling alcohol and other age restricted products in Devon, including targeted officer advice visits and sending a film and staff training pack called ‘No proof of age – No Sale’. The advice aims to make businesses aware of their responsibilities, such as checking the identification of customers believed to be underage. Retailers are advised to use the Challenge 21 scheme to prevent sales of age restricted goods such as alcohol to young people and some premises are choosing to adopt stricter schemes such as Challenge 25.
Councillor Roger Croad, Devon County Council’s Cabinet Member for Environmental and Regulatory Services, said: “In national surveys, nearly half of the children under 17 claim to drink alcohol at least once a week and a similar number say they buy the alcohol themselves. No illegal sale of alcohol to a young person is acceptable but we are pleased to see such an improvement in North Devon.”
PC Paul Daw, of Barnstaple Police Neighbourhood Support Team, said: “The figures clearly show an improvement, with off-licensed premises becoming much more diligent with regard to not selling alcohol to underage persons. I am pleased that the majority of the trade is taking its responsibilities seriously and implementing the measures to prevent such sales.
“There is a clear link between anti social behaviour and alcohol use in young people. These operations conducted together with our partners at Trading Standards, help reduce alcohol getting into the hands of underage persons.”
Devon County Council