A Controlled Purchase Operation (CPO) checking on the sale of alcohol to minors was held on Saturday, 11 February.
CPOs are used in conjunction with licence compliance checks to ensure licensed premises and certified managers are operating within their legal responsibilities.
Police, District Licencing Agencies and Te Whatu Ora joined forces to run the operation on Saturday.
For this operation a volunteer aged under-18 visited nine premises in the Westport area and attempted to purchase alcohol.
All but two premises visited requested identification, correctly identified the age of the minor and politely declined the sale.
Although the general level of compliance was good, Police were disappointed that two breaches were still detected.
Minors are at increased risk of alcohol-related harm and selling alcohol to a minor is a serious offence, attracting heavy fines and/or suspension of liquor licence and manager’s certificate.
Enquiries into Saturday’s operation are continuing and all businesses will be spoken to in due course.
‘Police will continue to monitor licensed premises in the future.
‘We will continue to work with our partner agencies to reduce alcohol-related harm in our community, ensuring alcohol is not being sold to underage people is a crucial component of this.
‘If you have any concerns about the sale or supply of alcohol to minors in your community, or you have any other questions around the sale or supply of alcohol, please contact your local Police station or Alcohol Harm Prevention Officer.’
More lazy policing…this is all they can find to do with their time……
Send them to the HB to help. This is overkill. Kiwis in desperate need in the NI and this is all they have to do on the West Coast? Shocking misuse of police time while good Kiwis being looted in HB
And while the gangs are in possession of ‘illegal’ if not semi-automatic firearms, the people being victimised and looted in the ‘State of Emergency’ areas are told not to defend themselves against such with their firearms…!
Pretty piss-poor policies…especially when one considers that New Zealand / Aotearoa signed-on to the United Nations Charter that includes ‘The U.N. Right to Self Defence’ under Chapter 7, Article 51.
Doesn’t the UN Charter over-ride local law and Constitutional conditions of the same????
Raiding bars and restaurants is indeed a waste of resources and time, especially when the gangs are now armed and running rampant in the disaster areas, and helicopter pilots are seeing dead bodies by the hundreds on the ground along their flight paths…!
Besides, most of the beersies for minors are going out the back door…I’d rather see a drunken teen as opposed to a teen who is permanently brain-damaged by a psycho-tropic, unregulated rave tablet after consuming the same on a one-and-only basis…!
The Minister of Police and the Police Commissioner both need to be stood down, and a Military Commander put in charge of the Cyclone-affected regions under both the State of Emergency and martial Law until the bodies are recovered from the silt, and businesses can be re-located to higher ground.
The areas flooded need to be retired and homes that can be moved to higher ground shifted to the same via house movers.
The government should do an equal-value land swap with the flood victims, put in the infrastructure along hill tops and higher elevations, and abandon those silted areas for good!
I have yet to see a land engineer’s report, or a geo-physics / seismologists report, or a sustainability licence issued for all of New Zealand that is prone to these ‘Natural Hazards’…!
What I find interesting is that those who are living in the affected regions cannot go to South Island to establish a new home due to the ferries being ‘down for maintenance’…how convenient in trapping those affected and now have lost everything to be barred from moving to South Island!
Kaikoura and SH1 along with the railroad should have been moved up to the Kaikoura Range, out of the tsunami zones and slip areas!
We can clearly see the incompetence, lack of insight and planning, and the wanton carelessness and disregard the ‘Powers That Be’ truly have.
When it comes to an emergency / natural disaster, the only one who will help you with any immediate effect is the person looking back at you in the mirror!
Real crime gets ignored in favour of enforcing bossy boots nanny state fascism.Dont they look dorky in those stupid hi-vis vests
I can still remember hiding in the hot water cupboard at the Barrytown Hotel during a Police raid
With the Proprietors Wife’s hand over My mouth
We were only about 17 or so
My Anglia used to cut out approaching the pub for some strange reason
Never did find out what was wrong with it
Couple of beers and it started no trouble (LOL)