Watch those ID dates

Test purchasers are using genuine ID that says they are a couple of months under 18 during the current national sting operation, the MA has learnt.

The practice goes against official advice from local government co-ordinator LACORS and the Trading Standards Institute (TSI).

Licensees are urged to check the date on ID carefully, as well as whether the ID is genuine, so they are not caught out during the 10-week Tackling Underage Sales of Alcohol Campaign. The operation runs until 15 July and involves three out of four police forces across England and Wales.

Pub managers employed by Laurel have been warned about the practice in an email from the company.

The email says that in some areas of the country test purchasers have been carrying various forms of ID that, while genuine, makes them just a month or two short of actually being 18. It advises managers to ensure staff make sure they thoroughly check the date on any ID being handed over

to them.

Poppleston Allen solicitor Graeme Cushion pointed out that the LACORS and TSI's Test Purchasing Code of Best Practice says youngsters used in sting operations should be at least 18 months below the legal age to buy alcohol.

National Association of Licensed House Managers president Dave Daly said: "This is obviously out of order. These teams of people who are clamping down on underage drinking are making it up as they go along. They need a proper code of practice and guidelines relating to what they can and can't do."

Daly recommended putting up signs behind the bar clearly stating the date after which anyone aged 18 or over would have had to have been born so that staff know what to look out for.