Parents of underage drinker’s targeted

PARENTS of those attempting underage drinking in Llanelli could be hit with £50 or £75 fixed penalties.

Llanelli’s Behave or Be Banned (BOBB) team have been exasperated at the numbers of underage drinkers attempting to get into pubs and clubs about the town.

Doormen at Baileys in Station Road recently turned away on one Friday night a total of 42 teenage boys and girls trying to by-pass doormen.

Many of them had produced fake ID including driving licences and passports of older brothers and sisters.

The BOBB scheme aims to stop people causing bother in just not one pub but in all those licensed premises signed up to ban problem customers. Underage drinkers are a separate problem because they should not be on the premises or be attempting to get in so a ban is not deterrent.

Chairman of the Llanelli group and Llanelli’s most experienced night club manager, Clive Brookfield, of Tom Peppers and the Moonraker, said underage drinkers were a continuous conveyor belt of problems for landlord’s year on year. When prevented entering a club or pub they caused problems in the street and moved on trying their luck at the next licensed premises.

He said: “If a barperson serves an underage person – and it can be so difficult to differentiate between those over and under 18 – they can be fined and so too can the landlord.

“This is particularly unfair when so many try to cheat the system and the young person escapes with a ticking off and parents can remain unaware of the incident. We need the support of police to help overcome quite a serious problem because the Validate card scheme is being fraudulently abused.

“If parents were knocked up from their beds and given fixed penalties it would have far more effect than fining the duped barman or landlord.

“I would like to see what happens in Wind Street, Swansea, replicated in Llanelli. There they have a liaison officer who collects all the fake ID’s and names of those underage ejected and issues fixed penalties to parents.”

“Unless there is an element of pain for the youngsters or pay the parents then no lessons are learned.”

The BOBB team agreed to investigate the Swansea parents fixed penalty scheme with a view to replicating it in Llanelli.

Sgt Justin Evans agreed with Llanelli landlords that policing underage drinking was difficult and making parents more accountable for their charges could help reduce the number transgressing.