Police pleased with no alcohol sales to minors during operation

Please attirbute to Inspector Vaughan Graham, Auckland City Police.

Partner agencies came together last Saturday night to run a Police led alcohol Controlled Purchase Operation (CPO) designed to help ensure alcohol is not being sold to minors.

The operation was rolled out across 25 premises including St Heliers, Kohimarama, Mission Bay, Orakei, Ponsonby and Grey Lynn resulting in no alcohol sales to minors.

“This is an excellent result and gives us confidence that retailers are acting responsibly and taking their roles in our community seriously,” said Inspector Vaughn Graham.

The operation targeted off-licence premises including bottle stores and supermarkets which involved two 16-year-old volunteers attempting to buy alcohol from each outlet.

“In every case the retailers questioned the boys and asked to see their I.D. which resulted in the boys being refused alcohol. This is exactly the result we were hoping for, we have a joint responsibility to help protect our young people and everyone needs to work together to ensure we are doing that. This is a very pleasing result and reinforces to retailers that action will be taken if alcohol is sold to minors,” he said.

The Alcohol Controlled Purchase Operation, which included Police, an Auckland Council Alcohol Licensing Inspector and Auckland Regional Public Health Officer is run in conjunction with licence compliance checks to ensure licensed premises and certified managers are operating in accordance with the provisions of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012.

Auckland City District Police have been working hard over a number of years to reduce alcohol sales to minors.

Along with CPOs, this has included proactive visits to off-licence premises across the district to provide advice and basic tools, such as age of purchase calendars, to help licensees and their staff identify and deal appropriately with minors attempting to purchase alcohol.

Police commend the attitude of store staff in relation to checking and double checking I.D’s, which ultimately led to no sales and will continue to work with partners and run similar operations.

ENDS

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