2:55PM, Thu Oct 4, 2012

Gateshead Shopkeepers Sold Booze To Children

By Hugh Macknight Location: Gateshead

Two Gateshead shop keepers have been fined for selling alcohol to children.

Mr Swaran Singh and his wife Mrs Kulwinder Kaur were caught in a Gateshead Council Trading Standards and Northumbria Police sting.

The pair, who jointly hold the premises licence for Gill's News Off Licence in St Edmund's Drive, Heworth, were each fined £83, ordered to pay £117.40 costs and a £15 victim surcharge by Gatehead Magistrates, after guilty pleas.

Trading standards officials sent in a 14-year-old volunteer to buy wine, after the shopkeepers were reported by a concerned member of the public.

After buying a bottle of wine the teenager was told by Mrs Kaur to 'bring ID next time'.

Trading Standards officers demanded to see the register of refusals to sell alcohol, which shops should keep to prove when they have refused to serve customers alcohol.

When Mrs Kaur produced the register, it was empty.

Gateshead Council service director of development and public protection Anneliese Hutchinson said: "This case is an example of a store failing to act responsibly to ensure that it follows the law when selling alcohol.

"That is clearly unacceptable and can have a major impact on the local community.

"There is a clear link between the availability of alcohol to young people and anti-social behaviour."