Too soon to say if parents fined for supplying alcohol

WANAKA

WANAKA police say ‘‘plenty’’ of fines were issued to teens in possession of alcohol over the New Year period but it is too soon to confirm if any parents were charged with supplying minors.

Before the Christmas and New Year period, Wanaka area response manager Miriam Chittenden warned parents they could face fines of up to $2000 if they were found to have supplied alcohol to underage drinkers and did not supervise them.

She was unable to confirm how many parents had been spoken to or how many fines had been issued until police conducted their ‘‘debrief’’ of the Queenstown Lakes District council’s event on the lakefront, which was due to take place in the next week.

Part of the police strategy this year in dealing with underage drinking had been to educate and deter parents from supplying alcohol to their unsupervised children, she said.

‘‘Even if none have been charged, I know plenty of conversations were had with parents and supervising adults who were supplying alcohol to minors.’’

Charging parents was something that police would consider any time they saw minors supplied with alcohol and not being supervised, Ms Chittenden said.

‘‘There was every likelihood that next year charging parents will become more of a focus if we continue to see high rates of minors unsupervised with alcohol,’’ she said.

Council spokesman Jack Barlow said the council planned to hold its own debriefing of the event in the first week of February.

Council staff, police, St John and Red Frog representatives and other welfare groups would attend.