Albrighton convenience store has alcohol licence suspended
Albrighton Post Office and Convenience Store has seen its license to sell alcohol suspend for 28 days after selling alcohol to underage teenagers on two separate occasions.
The store was visited by Shropshire Council's public protection officers early in 2014 following reports that sales of alcohol to minors were being made at the shop. During this exercise bottles of cider were sold to an underage volunteer aged 16.
A return visit to the shop was undertaken during September 2014, using a 17-year-old volunteer, which again resulted in an illegal sale, this time of a bottle of VS Blue, a vodka based drink.
Enquiries by public protection officers showed that the store did not adopt the steps to prevent underage sales that most traders would consider reasonable. An aggravating feature of this case was that both sales were made by the owner of the business.
An application for a Licence Review was submitted by public protection officers over concerns that the operation of Albrighton Post Office and Convenience Stores was undermining the licensing objective of ‘Protecting Children from Harm’. A hearing was held, at which the Premises Licence Holder failed to attend.
Having heard representations the Licensing Sub-Committee decided to suspend the Premises Licence for 28 days and to add six additional conditions, aimed at preventing further illegal sales, to the Premises Licence.
Following the licence review, Grant Tunnadine, investigations team manager for public protection at Shropshire Council, said:
“The public protection service will from time to time undertake alcohol test purchasing exercises at retail premises using underage individuals. We have to protect the welfare of young people and preventing them from accessing alcohol before they are legally old enough to purchase it, is one of the many ways that we contribute to this.
"I am pleased with the outcome of the licensing hearing today and we will continue to ensure that Shropshire traders do not sell alcohol to children. Any person found to sell alcohol during these operations may be issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice or in certain cases we may consider undertaking a formal investigation which could result in legal proceedings.
"Also, where a business’s activities are believed to undermine one of the licensing objectives then the public protection service is able to request a review of their premises licence.”
Steve Charmley, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member responsible for Public Protection added:
“Selling alcohol to minors is a serious matter and retailers must remain diligent at all times. Underage drinking has implications for the health of young people as well as their safety whilst under the influence. ‘Challenge 25’ is a very simple policy to adopt and has proved to be a very effective method of preventing underage sales. Any customer who appears to be aged 25 or under, should be asked to prove that they are legally old enough to purchase the alcohol. It can be difficult to judge a person’s age and it was for this reason that Challenge 25 was introduced. I am confident that when staff adopt the policy correctly, they will never sell to an underage individual.”
