Title – Two-day alcohol ban at off-licence
Source – Staines Leader
Date – 1st May 2008
It may not seem like a particularly harsh punishment considering the options available to the licensing authorities, but it is a very constructive approach by them in rehabilitating the retailer and a stark warning to other retailers. The authorities are out there carrying out test-purchasing with underage children to catch out rogue traders and much harsher punishments have been handed out in other parts of the country.
What you need to remember is that the two-day ban on selling alcohol is not the only inconvenience and cost to this business, additional expense and lost time in dealing with this process will certainly have been expensive to the business and you can be sure that trading standards will be keeping a very close eye on them from now on.
These incidents are easily avoidable, obviously simply not selling alcohol to children is the first step and the ‘challenge 21’ scheme is the simplest form of defence. It should be noted that test-purchasers must disclose their actual age when confronted. The second line of defence would have been to have all staff effectively trained and not to rely simply on the Personal Licence holder who in this case clearly was either not present at the time of the purchase or in effect sanctioned it.
By putting staff through the BIIAB’s Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing course (ARAR), it provides retailers with a defence of due diligence as the short exam at the end of the course contains compulsory questions on the licensing objectives including the sale of alcohol to children. But even more than the due diligence defence, it gives staff the foundation they need to retail alcohol responsibly and to understand the licensing objectives in the first place; prevention being better then the cure…
We provide training in the portfolio of BIIAB courses for every level of staff working in the licensed retail sector from the National Certificate for Designated Premises Supervisors (NCDPS) to the National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) and the ARAR.
Source – Staines Leader
Date – 1st May 2008
It may not seem like a particularly harsh punishment considering the options available to the licensing authorities, but it is a very constructive approach by them in rehabilitating the retailer and a stark warning to other retailers. The authorities are out there carrying out test-purchasing with underage children to catch out rogue traders and much harsher punishments have been handed out in other parts of the country.
What you need to remember is that the two-day ban on selling alcohol is not the only inconvenience and cost to this business, additional expense and lost time in dealing with this process will certainly have been expensive to the business and you can be sure that trading standards will be keeping a very close eye on them from now on.
These incidents are easily avoidable, obviously simply not selling alcohol to children is the first step and the ‘challenge 21’ scheme is the simplest form of defence. It should be noted that test-purchasers must disclose their actual age when confronted. The second line of defence would have been to have all staff effectively trained and not to rely simply on the Personal Licence holder who in this case clearly was either not present at the time of the purchase or in effect sanctioned it.
By putting staff through the BIIAB’s Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing course (ARAR), it provides retailers with a defence of due diligence as the short exam at the end of the course contains compulsory questions on the licensing objectives including the sale of alcohol to children. But even more than the due diligence defence, it gives staff the foundation they need to retail alcohol responsibly and to understand the licensing objectives in the first place; prevention being better then the cure…
We provide training in the portfolio of BIIAB courses for every level of staff working in the licensed retail sector from the National Certificate for Designated Premises Supervisors (NCDPS) to the National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) and the ARAR.
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
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