Refused alcohol in Marks & Spencer's?

[frankiesamson]

My husband just got refused buying a bottle of wine in Marks & Spencer is, at the age of 38!

Whilst he took it as a compliment.. (he hasn't been Id'd in years!) we both were just wondering randomly where the law stands with this in the UK?

It's not fun to ID people. You have to record it all and it's a pain in the arse.

Significantly less than a potential fine and losing your job for selling alcohol to someone who could appear under 25 - especially given that they tend to test these things with people who look older, and CCTV quality can make people seem younger, granted; but I don't think anyone is IDing people for fun.

I got IDed in Tesco once for a small bottle of cooking wine (the sort that is about £1). I was 39, had a 10 and 5 year old with me and had spent about £120 on other shopping. I did say (nicely) to the cashier that spending £120 pounds on washing powder, cat food, lunch box food and sausages and borrowing two children to moan ‘muuuuum’ at me for an hour was perhaps going overboard to try and illegally buy a 1/3rd litre of wine that is not meant to be drunk. I was also chuffed obviously.

I used to work in a pub and never had all this. It was (closed down now) an ‘old mans’ pub and very much regulars only so you could pretty much predict to the minute who would walk in and what drink they’d be having! Is the law now such that a test purchaser who is say, 23 could be sent in to a shop/pub and the cashier/bar staff fined because they didn’t ask them for ID, even though they are five years above the legal minimum age to buy booze and so the staff have done nothing wrong? The law (as I understood it) is to prevent sales of age restricted products to people under the specified age, not those who LOOK as if they might not be seven years older than that?

Shelikes- when you say £1 cooking wine do you mean wine vinegar? That's non alcoholic, so tell the cashier where to put it

Ahh - you're doing the right thing to take the compliment. Was the cashier an older person by any chance? I find the older someone is they fibd it more difficult it is to judge, especially as challenge 25 is now the policy!

I certainly struggle to see the difference between a 20 year old and a 25 year old...

I'm guessing there has been quite a lot of in-store training basically stating 'even if someone is white-haired, covered in wrinkles and is with a child who calls them Gran, they still might be under 25, because you can never tell and if you let one of those slip through that's your job gone'.

Not just your job, you can actually end up with a criminal record - you're personally liable if you serve someone underage. It's not uncommon in the states for them to just blanket ID everyone.

You can get wine for £1, the basic range.

The DC in the other story was 12, not 4.

I carry my passport all the time so it's no problem if people want ID, which they seem to more and more these days.

This is my favourite thing about M&S. I got id'ed last year age 39, and the lovely cashier actually gasped when she checked my driving licence. Fabulous.

Is the law now such that a test purchaser who is say, 23 could be sent in to a shop/pub and the cashier/bar staff fined because they didn’t ask them for ID

No. The law is still that the shop and staff can be fined if they serve alcohol or tobacco to someone under age. "Challenge 25" is a strategy to help retailers err on the side of caution.

DH got id-ed buying matches to light the candles on his 30th birthday cake

Your DH bought his own birthday cake matches? How depressing. Where were u?

It should be "Challenge 99" not "Challenge 25" then

A schoolmate worked in a branch with a flat rule of no ID no booze. Didn't matter if you were 82 and had no photographic ID, it did seem a fairly extreme line.

I've not been asked for ID since I was 22.

I was making the cake!