Four businesses caught selling booze to children

Central Beds Council’s Trading Standards officers teamed up with Licensing Officers from Bedfordshire Police to find out where underage sales take place.

During National Licensing Week 2016 the council and the police worked together to identify licensed premises where underage sales of alcohol may be taking place.

A total of 10 off licenses and pubs in Leighton Buzzard and Dunstable were visited to test the systems that were in place to prevent underage sales of alcohol – four (all in Dunstable) failed the test purchase scenario.

These premises were immediately issued a Fixed Penalty Notice for the offence of selling alcohol to a minor and this will be followed up with written warnings and a revisit to the premises in the future.

Imogen Best, Trading Standards Officer for Central Bedfordshire Council said: “We have been working closely with our colleagues from Bedfordshire Police Licensing to identify and clamp down on premises that sell alcohol to the public, and that do not have adequate systems in place to prevent underage sales of alcohol to children.

“This is a major area of concern for both the parties and we will continue to undertake operations, as well as working with the Licensed Trade to improve standards and systems designed to reduce the level of underage sales in Central Bedfordshire”.

The operation was undertaken as part of National Licensing Week, a nationwide campaign promoted by the institute of Licensing to raise awareness of Licensing matters and issues across the country.