Lincs pub found with majority of underage customers

The Royal Mail Cart in Spalding was targeted on Friday 28 October in a joint operation by Police Licensing Dept officers and Lincolnshire Trading Standards. The team had also received intelligence about under age sales throughout the year.

A sale of alcohol was made to the 15 to 16-year-old volunteers during the operation, and police then found a majority of the customers in the pub were under-18 with some admitting to purchasing alcohol.

The premises licence will also be subject to a review application, and the licensee will face an interview with a view to a prosecution.

On the night of the operation, the premises was issued with a Section 19 closure notice which advises that unless a breach of conditions is remedied further action will be taken. These have now been addressed.

In a separate operation on Thursday 27 October, the Marine Boathouse in Skegness and the Magnet Tavern in Boston were fined £80 each for failing to check IDs of 15 to 16-year-old police volutneers.

It is the second time in three months that the Marine Boathouse has failed such a test operation so it will now be subject to a review of the premises licence and, potentially, further criminal proceedings.

The Magnet Tavern will be retested and the operator invited to informal meeting to discuss the issue to prevent its recurrence.

Lincolnshire CC head of safer communities Sara Barry: “It’s disappointing to see underage children purchasing alcohol when these businesses have been recently advised by Trading Standards and Lincolnshire Police.

"However we are pleased to see the other businesses refusing sales, demonstrating no ID no sale. We encourage any establishment selling age restricted goods such as alcohol and tobacco to adopt a challenge policy like Challenge 25 to prevent sales to children.”