Triple sting failure may cost host £10k

A Northampton licensee could be the first to face a £10,000 fine and a three-month suspension of his licence for serving under-18s three times within three months.

That is the maximum penalty for the unnamed licensee, who faces prosecution for persistently selling alcohol to children. This new offence came into force in April under the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006.

Police will also ask for a review of the pub's premises licence.

The pub failed three sting operations during the national Tackling Underage Sales of Alcohol Campaign, which ended last month.

Morning Advertiser legal editor Peter Coulson said: "They have gone for the tougher powers, rather than the closure notice, where they can stipulate a period of closure of up to 48 hours.

"They have decided that the matter will be brought to court so that they can gain maximum publicity."

Poppleston Allen lawyer Graeme Cushion said: "During the recent campaign I have been very surprised by how few calls we've had generally regarding failures. We've only had two calls from people who reached the second strike (due to two failures) and no-one said they had reached the third strike."

Northampton Police also said they will ask for licence- reviews of another pub, an off-licence and a service station that failed two stings. They also issued 17 penalty notices of £80 to staff who served the 15 and 16-year-olds used during the sting.

Sergeant Mark Worthington said: "We hope this campaign will encourage not only those premises we targeted, but also other licensees to check - and if necessary, strengthen - their sales procedures."

Zero failure for welsh counties

Two counties in North Wales registered a zero-failure rate in this summer's national test-purchase operation.

Police and trading standards in Conwy and Denbighshire undertook 59 tests of pubs, clubs and off-trade outlets, but none served the youngsters, who were aged 14, 15 and 16.

Phil Rafferty, Conwy and Denbighshire head of licensing, said it was a "credit to our licence holders".

But he warned: "The next phase of the work of partners is to concentrate our efforts on drunkenness and proxy sales (adults purchasing alcohol for minors)."