Shops sold booze to underage youngsters (From Daily Echo)
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Shops sold booze to underage youngsters
8:24am Thursday 13th December 2012 in News By Ed Stilliard, Senior Reporter
Off-licences sold booze to underage youngsters
Four off-licences in Southampton were caught selling alcohol to underage youngsters in a police sting.
Two youths aged under 18, under the watchful eye of plain clothes police officers, were sent into a selection of off-licences in Bitterne to see if they could buy any alcohol.
Of the seven shops they went into the pair managed to successfully buy an alcoholic drink from four of them.
They were Laly's Costcutter in Thornhill Park Road, Co-op in Hinkler Road, Alpine News in Vanguard Road, and London Off-licence, St Catherine's Road, Bitterne Park.
The four shop assistants who sold the booze have been given £80 fixed penalty notices.
The other three - the Co-op in Midanbury Broadway, the Co-op in West End Road and the Premier Parade in Forest Hills Drive - passed the test.
PC Lou Carter of Hampshire Police who led the operation said: “It was disappointing that more shops failed than passed in our test purchase operation.
"All off-licences should be checking ages of people if they are not obviously over 18 and asking for proof.
“We recommend they actually extend this to anyone who looks under 25.
“We will be speaking with the owners of the shops who failed and making recommendations to them about such things as staff training to make sure they don't fail again.
"Shops that continually do fail are likely to have their licence taken away.”
Comments(18)
Avery T Decanary
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8:47am Thu 13 Dec 12
davel_cats
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9:05am Thu 13 Dec 12
sarfhamton
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9:47am Thu 13 Dec 12
Happy days.
elvisimo
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9:58am Thu 13 Dec 12
Avery T Decanary wrote:Agreed - ideal solution.
As far as I am concerned, I think their licence to sell alcohol should be revoked for a minimum of three months as well as a fine. A second offence, licence lost - permanently.
hulla baloo
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10:28am Thu 13 Dec 12
Lockssmart
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10:38am Thu 13 Dec 12
wacky44
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10:55am Thu 13 Dec 12
Dusty
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10:59am Thu 13 Dec 12
sparkster
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11:04am Thu 13 Dec 12
Donald2000
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11:40am Thu 13 Dec 12
myownopinion
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11:42am Thu 13 Dec 12
Inform Al
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12:40pm Thu 13 Dec 12
bazzeroz
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3:16pm Thu 13 Dec 12
Over the Edge
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4:23pm Thu 13 Dec 12
bazzeroz wrote:Thornhill is in the Bitterne Ward so maybe 2 shops are in theory Bitterne?????
NONE of those shops are in BITTERNE!! Thornhill, Bitterne Park and Midanbury.
I bet the poor bugger behind the till was gutted £80 fine for them not the shopowners
Sovietobserver
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5:05pm Thu 13 Dec 12
PC Lou Carter says 'we will be speaking to the owners of the shops',
again no names mentioned - more anonymity- why ?
Whoever holds the alcohol licence usually has their name displayed in the shop stating they are licenced to do so.
So either I, or anybody including DE journalists like Ed Stilliard can visit these four shops and note the four owners names and name and shame them on this site. I might even carry out
some further investigations in the next few hours to reveal the names of the four shop assistants so they will be named and shamed as well. Southampton needs 'cleansing' of all the 'wrongdoing' that infest our neighbourhoods and by doing 'fuels' youth crime. Enough is enough of these 'too soft ' approaches and all persons involved in such illegal activities whoever they are. I would be willing to support any local 'crusade' for 2013 that will improve the lives of Southampton's citizens. We need to report every incident that we see that needs police attention, to inundate them with reports, so that they are provoked into more action .
100%HANTSBOY
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7:15pm Thu 13 Dec 12
Sovietobserver wrote:I can see your heart is in the right place,but the fines were issued to the assistants not the shop owners/licence holders,so I don't see much point in you doing your private investigations. With reference to the London Off Licence,you'll be lucky to catch an assistant on duty who can actually speak English,so don't bother with this one.
The four guilty shops have been named in this report, but the four shop assistants retain their anonymity, why ?
PC Lou Carter says 'we will be speaking to the owners of the shops',
again no names mentioned - more anonymity- why ?
Whoever holds the alcohol licence usually has their name displayed in the shop stating they are licenced to do so.
So either I, or anybody including DE journalists like Ed Stilliard can visit these four shops and note the four owners names and name and shame them on this site. I might even carry out
some further investigations in the next few hours to reveal the names of the four shop assistants so they will be named and shamed as well. Southampton needs 'cleansing' of all the 'wrongdoing' that infest our neighbourhoods and by doing 'fuels' youth crime. Enough is enough of these 'too soft ' approaches and all persons involved in such illegal activities whoever they are. I would be willing to support any local 'crusade' for 2013 that will improve the lives of Southampton's citizens. We need to report every incident that we see that needs police attention, to inundate them with reports, so that they are provoked into more action .
Sovietobserver
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8:45pm Thu 13 Dec 12
100%HANTSBOY wrote:In your first sentence your remarks are exactly what I am questioning, why the owners / managers are denied to take responsibility for their employees actions which is the norm and for what reason is it not in these cases.Has the law been manipulated especially for off-licences. Is this written into their contracts of employment, and are they aware if it is or not, or was it discussed with them before the event.
Sovietobserver wrote:I can see your heart is in the right place,but the fines were issued to the assistants not the shop owners/licence holders,so I don't see much point in you doing your private investigations. With reference to the London Off Licence,you'll be lucky to catch an assistant on duty who can actually speak English,so don't bother with this one.
The four guilty shops have been named in this report, but the four shop assistants retain their anonymity, why ?
PC Lou Carter says 'we will be speaking to the owners of the shops',
again no names mentioned - more anonymity- why ?
Whoever holds the alcohol licence usually has their name displayed in the shop stating they are licenced to do so.
So either I, or anybody including DE journalists like Ed Stilliard can visit these four shops and note the four owners names and name and shame them on this site. I might even carry out
some further investigations in the next few hours to reveal the names of the four shop assistants so they will be named and shamed as well. Southampton needs 'cleansing' of all the 'wrongdoing' that infest our neighbourhoods and by doing 'fuels' youth crime. Enough is enough of these 'too soft ' approaches and all persons involved in such illegal activities whoever they are. I would be willing to support any local 'crusade' for 2013 that will improve the lives of Southampton's citizens. We need to report every incident that we see that needs police attention, to inundate them with reports, so that they are provoked into more action .
Yes I am fully aware of the ethnicity of the 'London off-licence 2' premises, and on my visit I will be accompanied by a female interpreter posing as my grandaughter who is fully conversant in both Turkish and Kurdish to fulfil a successful outcome, so yes, I will be bothering.
Thank you for your concerns and reading my post in its entirety.
MGRA says...
8:47am Thu 13 Dec 12