Five licensed premises were caught selling alcohol to a minor during a sting over the weekend.
The Christchurch City Council’s Alcohol Licensing Team and the Police Alcohol Harm Prevention Unit visited a total of 15 licensed venues, with a focus on sale of alcohol to minors.
Staff at a third of these premises were found to have not taken the appropriate measures to verify patrons’ ages.
“This demonstrates clear deficiencies between legal obligations and good practice and the actual behaviour in relation to how some staff at licensed premises are verifying the age of patrons before selling alcohol," the council’s chief licensing inspector Gary Hay said.
He said it was “really disappointing” that five premises failed, and the licensing team was surprised by the fail rate of the operation.
While the law is that alcohol cannot be sold to anyone under the age of 18, Hay said it was good practice for premises to be checking the ID of anyone who looks under 25 years old.
Following the operation, the premises found to be non-compliant will be contacted by Police and Alcohol Licensing Inspectors to discuss next steps.
As per the legislation, this could include lodging suspension applications with the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority.
These suspensions may be regarding the premises, or the staff members and duty managers involved.
The council will not be disclosing the names or locations of the failed premises at this stage.
