To report an off licence?

[HotChocWine]

Long story short, off licence sold vodka to a 17 year old, that my 15 year old drank and we ended up in a and e as he was unresponsive

We have been told where it was bought, I was debating letting Trading Standards know about it

😂

Yes you can report the Off Licence because they broke the law selling alcohol to an under 18. But likely nothing will be done except maybe a few spot checks to see if they're routinely doing it. I would concentrate on making sure your 15 understands the gravity of what happened.

It would still be the shop that broke the law either way

That wasn’t really the point. But ok.

In any case, both the teen buying and the shop selling would be breaking the law.

Our local shops have an issue with underage teens running into the shops/supermarkets, grabbing a bottle and running out. No ID required, no ID checked and no money changing hands.

@WhatsTheUseOfWorrying Lots of the supermarkets have that policy - basically if I buy when accompanied by an 8 year old they'll sell it to me, if I'm accompanied by say a 16 year old, they won't. In actual fact, neither of my teens nor me drink alcohol, I just buy it for DH, but it's pretty annoying when your teen was kind enough to come and help with the shopping that you then can't buy it. I've learnt now not to take them with me.

Been there as a parent 😭😫DS 16 last month was drinking Magners, Tenants and swigging his friend's Buckfast🤢 they used fake ID to get the booze and headed to a local park. I was very upset but didn't report the off licence because ultimately DS made his decision to do something stupid. He did it for emotional reasons, not just to get drunk though. He needed help getting showered, was abusive to other customers in a fast food joint and I think ultimately learned several lessons from what happened - Don't mix your drinks and don't drink on an empty stomach being just a few! Hasn't repeated it since and said sorry for his behaviour.

OP I hope your 15yo is doing okay now. Lesson learned. All will work out fine 🙂 ❤

This is the very reason why alcohol should not be sold to underage customers, and the off licence needs to be reported. You would not be unreasonable to do so, as well as grounding your 15 year old, or whatever else you think appropriate.

DC lie

They could have used fake ID

Someone else's ID

Or been given the alcohol by their parents

Or taken from their parent drinks cabinet

Of course you should report the shop! These responses are (as per usual) crazy. It's illegal to sell alcoholic to anyone under 18 and they should check anyone who looks under 25.

That's something that the police can check.

Why would you not report a shop that sold alcohol to someone underage that nearly killed a teenager?

Thank you. It’s news to me. I’ve never come across this.

Presumably they would sell if the teen just went out of the shop so you weren’t accompanied by them at the point of sale? The country seems to have gone a bit mad.

YABU. If a 15 year old wants to get shitfaced, they're going to get shitfaced. The 17 year old who bought it may have looked older. Getting someone else in trouble isn't going to change what's happened. Hopefully it's a wake up call which will but them off in future.

Edited for wrong post quoted.

Don’t you think the u-18 who bought it (assuming it’s true there was a sale, the vodka wasn’t stolen, no fake id etc) should also be prosecuted? And it sounds like OP’s son might well have been drunk and disorderly too.

If you’re going to be hard on the shop, why not on those who asked for the sale and drank the vodka? They’re not young children. They’re both old enough to be prosecuted.

Come on, cps took THREE years to get my mates rape case to court. There’s no way they will prosecute a teen for getting shitfaced.

one day if your ever unfortunate enough to be a victim of crime your in for a big shock.

Oh I agree. My point was to the poster who was saying the shop should be reported to the police. It was just an observation that teens have responsibility too.

I’m well aware that the police do fuck all about most crime. Including the crimes that I’ve been a victim of and my kids have been victims of. No shocks there.

My mum used to threaten to take my picture around the local shops with my age printed over it 🤣

Also I think waste of time reporting them.
If they didn't buy it from that particular shop, they would have still got it elsewhere; another shop or an 18 year old buy it for them, stolen from parents cupboard etc.

Tequila for me!

Increible.😧

I’d report. I know everyone says that kids will get hold of alcohol one way or another and I’m sure that is true but it shouldn’t be that easy. For all you know, this premises is selling to underage kids all the time so they need looking at.

Yes I would report them.

Until she aged out my daughter had a job making test purchases. It was shocking the amount of places who didn’t ID for both alcohol & vapes.

The country seems to have gone a bit mad.

Indeed it does, people want the shops and the people selling it to be accountable when something goes wrong, but also don't want to have the issues around proxy sales affect them at all and start talking about 'common sense' and sales assistants being power mad and stupid when refusing a sale on the suspicion of a proxy sale when buying it with a teen in tow. Or the same when someone is challenged under challenge 25 because "The law is 18!!".

But want those policies to be effective so that a 15 year old can't get access to the alcohol to get in this state in the first place, even though they are completely unwilling to accept that it has to apply to everyone, including themselves, to be effective and stop proxy sales happening.

This is a pretty straightforward one as the person who actually bought the alcohol was under 18, so shouldn't have been able to buy it in the first place for it to become a 'proxy' sale for being bought for a 15 year old.

So if you want to be able to buy alcohol unhindered by being ID'd if you look under 25 to the person selling it (and taking the responsibility), because 18 is the law, or with your teen because you're over 18 and a responsible parent and should be allowed to buy alcohol if you want, then you need to accept that mistakes will happen and someone under 18 will occasionally be sold to or proxy sales will happen.

Or if you want to ensure that the risk of an underage sale or proxy sale is as low as possible, then one day you might be asked to provide ID or refused a sale if you have an underage (or without ID) teen with you.

Or if you want to ensure that the risk of an underage sale or proxy sale is as low as possible, then one day you might be asked to provide ID or refused a sale if you have an underage (or without ID) teen with you.

I can’t see why being id’d is an issue. And I’ve never heard anyone complain about it (all the comment I’ve seen is people being chuffed they look young enough to be asked for proof of age!). Self-service checkouts do always require a member of staff to verify age for restricted purchases, which is right and sensible.

The “if you have a teen with you” bit I don’t understand at all. It’s not against the law to buy alcohol in the presence of anyone U-18. And refusing the sale wouldn’t stop the teen just leaving the shop so the older person could buy it. And if the shoppers know that a shop won’t sell to someone who’s with a teen, the teen just waits outside.

How about pubs and restaurants? Should adults should be refused alcohol if they have teens with them?