Store sells booze to minor

[NorahNorah]

What would you do?
Spirits purchased by u18 with someone elses Id .. a child ends up in hospital.
Not about blame , that said , let's "keep it real" and even if no one ended up in hospital ( or worse ) what action would you take?

Thank you @poppyzbrite4 - I'm getting nowhere on the phone, and I may well have to attend in person.
But what do you think about Licensing and Trading Standards teams at the council , as @ImRonBurgandy suggests?

There's no harm in contacting both.

Trading Standards and your local council are the people to contact.
Phone or email them now.

agreed @CoffeeGood - partic as one of them had a significantly more extreme experience - and was unresponsive, such that one of the others called their mum, who told them to call an ambulance
It's gutting that these friends weren't taking care of each other

If the person puhcasing the alcohol had plausible ID, then the supermarket has done its due diligence by checking that ID, what else would you ask them to do? The teen that lent the ID and the teen that used the ID need sitting down and reading the riot act

Agree with this. They could be causing someone to lose their job. As OP hasn't told us how alike, or unalike , these two people look we have no idea how much due diligence the shop has taken.

I am totally against under age drinking and if I worked in a store I would never knowingly provide alcohol to someone under age. Bit of someone presents with fake ID surely the consequences are on that person not the store. How is the server supposed to know the IDis fake. Yes they can make a guess but lots of teens look older than they are. Also if they are wrong and the person is of age they are on trouble for refusing the ID . Surely it is the responsibility of the person presenting fake ID not the shop keeper. When we heat of scams we know that the scammer is the illegal one not the person being scammed out. The under she ID owner is trying to perpetuate a scsm on the shop worker in a dishonest illegal attempt to get what the sre legally not allowed to have. If I was to present fake vouchers to Tesco (before the could be checked by till ) I am the dishonest one not the person behind the till.

I wouldn’t be taking any action against the shop as the teens clearly tricked them with the fake ID. I would be furious with the teens for being so reckless and would very much hope they have learnt their lesson.

Excuse Clumsy fingers. 😁

Blimey OP, you are agonising over this. I'd report it without thinking. If the supermarket or individual had done everything they were meant to then they will be fine. I'm not sure I'd be punishing the minor who ended up in hospital as I think they have punished themselves. I'd be mad at whoever lent the ID.

OP, what do YOU think should happen? It's unclear where you are placed in this scenario and your posts mostly read as thinking that the blame lies somewhere with the store or individual who sold the alcohol, rather than with the teens involved or their families.

They had id. What more do you want the shops to do?

This is completely down to the teenagers and the fault/blame lies with them.

if I was the parent of one of these teenagers I'd ask myself why they were so fascinated by alcohol as to think it was a good idea to commit ID fraud and to drink themselves into oblivion. Very worrying.

This, if any of the teens involved were mine, they'd be grounded and any pocket money stopped.
How old is the teen? You seem to be taking any responsibility away from them.

I might go speak to the supermarket manager in a "this happened, and you need to improve your training" but honestly my concern would be much more focused on the teens involved. How do they know each other? Same school? same neighbourhood? Old friendship group vs new friendship group? And also how old - sorry if I missed it, because my response would be different with 17-year-olds than 14-year-olds?

Ultimately the bunch of kids lied and committed fraud with the fake ID, illegally purchased alcohol, consumed enough to be unresponsive and presumably were encouraging others to consume that much. And, great that one kid had the brains to call a mum but the rest were not looking out for their friend. And now they are covering their tracks and not showing remorse. The shop would be the least of my worries.

Hi OP. I've worked as a server in a bar and am found personally liable if I serve someone underage and get fined while earning minimum wage. If I

A) ask for ID (check 25)
B) check the ID is real (usually easy to tell)
C) the person in the picture looks like the person I'm serving (baring in mind the picture is small and often not recent)

I'm not really sure what else I can do 🤷🏻‍♀️. Surely at that point it's on the teen because I've done my due diligence and there's no other way for me to check.

Totally agree with @Lillith111 every shop/bar/pub have been into for ages now the staff are really diligent with I.d checks so am wondering if the I.d frauding teen used a siblings who live they look like? Can't imagine a random friend looking this similar to each other.
And until op says how old the dc are it's hard to get a true picture! As pp has put 13 or 17?

The shop assistant will likely be sacked.

@AgileGreenSeal not necessarily.
If the store/trading standards/council do an investigation and it seems the sales assistant did follow all the procedures correctly but got caught out by a very good fake ID then they won't automatically be fired.
An investigation needs to happen first.

Have been ruminating and am thinking the teen must be at least 17, as am sure if its as bad as op has said re hospital would it not have been flagged as SS referral re safeguarding if teens were v young? Although happy to be corrected!

Not fully sure what you mean by these questions but I'll try answer. "Give out to" the teen that was drinking as in reprimand them, punish them, give them consequences to their actions.... They have told many lies to get themselves into this situation and also knowingly put themselves (and whoever else they bought alcohol for) in a dangerous situation. It sounds in some of your posts as though you are looking to shift the blame away from them!

It's the local authority of the area where the shop is situated @NorahNorah so in my London borough it would be (for example) Islington licensing team.

And yes it's the sale of alcohol to a minor that's the offence - S109 of the Licensing Act 2003 iirc. I think a teen showing an actual fake ID has potentially committed the act of fraud (as they have received an advantage to which they are not entitled) but I've never heard of that being taken forward.

I work in a supermarket. We are supposedly trained to check IDs on a variety of levels - we are supposed to look at the photograph and date of birth, check that they look like the person in front of us, and if in doubt to ask for the date of birth (which customer should give as the same as the one on the ID). I would say that the shop has been lax, if not illegally so. I'd have a word with the manager, because the person who sold the alcohol might need retraining, because if they didn't check ID properly for a test sale they could lose their job.

I am absolutely struggling with this @AlohaRose - my gut is saying, stop over reacting , trials and tribulations etc , but it's still fire they're playing with . You're kind of invinvible at the age .
We all know more now, we all know better .. and I think that continues with the comming generation.
That's where I'm stuck.
First of all, blessed that the ambulance was called, at all, such a blessing - and it's not about, should have done this and when they should have etc .. because the fact it did happen, is a g#dsend.
Personally, from that point on, and once everyone's ok and recovered. I definately want a lessons's learned chat. They r not always that useful, still do it when you can.
I'd love for the lot of them, to be sent for a day of education on the matter. I'd love for them to have to be lectured all day, about it. Like they have speeding fines, but also the choice to take a class (stll get the fine lols but not the points).
That would be an outcome. It's impossible to make that happen, without a policeofficer or social worker shaking their fingers at them.

As far as due diligence goes - excuse me? A child succesfully purchased this - and we've seen it in the movies - the cashier asks a few questions, tries to catch them out, whatever.

I have zero knowledge about the protocol for that, i'm certainly interested now.

So what training do they get:
When I got through to a person, "You need to speak to the store manager on duty that day," then, ".. and I can't connect you to the store .. "

This goes ages, dropped lines , call backs , poor signal .. blah

Approaching the third hour, I get through to a cust ser manager, who says, "It would be the fault of the staff member on the checkout."

I asked, why? And what are they supposed to do?
Then, all these broken biscuits fell out of their mouth," ... Compare the photo to their face ...," Ohhh really .. is that how it works .. ?

Are you kidding me ? That they don't get any training on this?

So, @Frozenberries @BeerForMyHorses @MermaidEyes @shiningstar2 @AlohaRose @HoppyZippy

Either they don't training, or that cust ser manager doesn't know what training, or if, and that attiude will have rippled out to all the managers at the same level, and all the employees at lower levels.

It is definately not the cashier's fault and no one need lose their job, but they still ought to be accountable.

Yes. Trading standards may be the ones to contact.