Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Drunk 15-year-old falls ill after shop sold her alcohol
‘Seriously’ sick teenager rushed to hospital
A shop has given up its alcohol licence after staff sold booze to two underage girls - one of whom became seriously ill and ended up in hospital.
The pair, aged 14 and 15, bought the drinks from AK Enterprise in Longport, Canterbury, twice in 45 minutes, before the older of the two became severely sick and needed urgent treatment.
After the “upsetting” incident, police visited the shop and were concerned about the lack of in-store CCTV footage showing the sales.
They were also worried by the failure of staff to keep a refusals book, or show records of training around licensing issues.
The retailer’s licence was due to be reviewed by Canterbury City Council last week, but before the hearing, bosses from the premises decided to surrender their right to sell booze.
PC Jim Gall said: “Laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol to children are in place to prevent
young people from coming to harm.
“Any premises that sells alcohol has a duty to protect young people, and we will take action against any business we believe is not adhering to the rules.
“I hope one positive to come from this upsetting incident is that the message goes out to other businesses that they must not sell alcohol to underage customers, and must have procedures in place to ensure they comply with the law.”
Police wanted the premises’ licence to be revoked when they originally called for the review after the incident in October.
By giving up its licence, AK Enterprise will be unable to sell alcohol without reapplying to the city council.
It would need to show it has put appropriate measures in place to prevent sales to children.
The local authority’s enforcement chief, Cllr Ashley Clark, added: “The decision to surrender the licence has saved a lot of time, cost and difficulty for witnesses.
“We take our mission to uphold the licensing objectives very seriously and we have a large number of licensed premises in this district.
“Those who act responsibly and stick to the rules will get our full support but those who are found to have flouted those rules in a brazen manner must expect that this committee will come down on them like a ton of bricks.”
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