'Pub ban girl is back on the booze'

A young woman barred from every pub in Britain is back on the booze - just days before the airing of a TV show on how she quit drinking. Jobless Laura Hall, 21, was fined £75 last week after she admitted being drunk and disorderly and breaching a two-year court order banning her from licensed premises. Embarrassingly for BBC chiefs, her conviction comes just a week before a fly-on-the-wall -documentary called 'Laura Hall - My Battle With Booze' is due to be shown. - Sunday Mirror​

A controversial new role-playing method about the dangers of alcohol has gone on trial in primary schools in Scotland. The scheme, called Alcohol Interactive, encourages ten- and 11-year-olds to act out drunken roles in an attempt to educate them about acceptable levels of drinking. The students use scenarios such as adults drinking at a dinner party, a family enjoying alcohol at a wedding, drinking games at a nightclub and teens getting drunk in the park. - Scotsman​

Late last year Punch Taverns chief executive Ian Dyson spent £127,000 buying 200,000 shares in the indebted pub group at an average price of 64p. Last Friday the shares closed at 69.5p. Punch is not for the cautious, but nimble investors may want to take a punt. - Daily Mail​

A pub-goer was left with brain damage when he was punched by a thug who picked on him because he had a stutter. Student Oliver Lynch, 21, was part of a gang which mocked 20-year-old -Thomas Ferdinando after they heard him ordering a drink at the Oak Tree pub in Sevenoaks, Kent. He punched Ferdinando so hard he fell against a wall and suffered bleeding on his brain. Lynch admitted actual bodily harm and is due to be sentenced by town magistrates this week. - Daily Mirror​