By Police sting catches shops selling alcohol to children in Grimsby and Cleethorpes
Off-licences in Grimsby and Cleethorpes have been given warnings after selling alcohol to under-18s in a police sting operation.
Twenty eight shops were visited following information suggesting they had been selling alcohol to young people illegally, in a Humberside Police force-wide initiative.
Officers made test purchases at each of the 28 premises and seven of them sold alcohol to police cadets and special constables – including two in Grimsby and one in Cleethorpes.
Community Safety and Licensing Sergeant Lee Newton said: “We have had lots of information coming in from our communities about anti-social behaviour of young people who had reportedly being buying alcohol from local shops across the Humberside Police area.
“Officers gathered these pieces of information together and throughout July visited each of the suspected premises.
“We recruited our young police cadets and special constables to go into the stores and make ‘test purchases’ of alcohol.
“Out of the 28 premises visited in July seven of them sold alcohol to our young people.
“One premises in Hull, two in Grimsby, one in Cleethorpes and three in Scunthorpe all breached licencing laws.”
He continued: “Many of our local residents have told us about children causing anti-social behaviour and trouble in the local area because of having access to alcohol.
“The offending licensees will be receiving a warning letter and we will be working with them to make sure they tighten up their company policies around ‘Challenge 25’.”
The Challenge 25 scheme is set up for all retailers to ask for ID for anyone that looks under 25.
Humberside Police will be revisiting each shop to make sure they are adhering to the law.
Anyone found operating outside of the law can face losing their licence or prosecution.
The 21 stores that refused the young people when they attempted to buy from them have been congratulated on the professional management of their premises.
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