An off-licence owner in Bransgore narrowily avoided losing his licence to sell alcohol after a test was made by Trading Standards using an underage girl.

The owner, Cornelis van Biemen of Bransgore Wines pleaded guilty at Lyndhurst magistratres court to the offence of selling alcohol to a person under the age of 18 years.  The shop like most others who sell alcohol have a “Over 21” scheme which gives some safety margin when selling wines, beers and spirits.

 In court the prosecutor Andrew Slee said that the shop owner had been sent a retailers advice and training pack on the legislation but the owner still failed to query the girls age at time of purchase.  At the time of the offence he was cautioned by police involved in the exercise and said, “That he was so sorry, I can only apologise”

 In mitigation Mr. Biemen said that he had been plagued with spate of shoplifting recently and was distracted by another customer acting stranglely at the time and hadn’t paid full attention to who he was serving.

 The court heard that Mr. Biemen had not had previous experience licensee or retailing experience and was finding extremely difficult making the business profitable.

 For selling a 70cl bottle of Smirnoff Ice to an under age customer he was sentenced to a 12 month conditional discharge and ordered to pay the costs of £150.00, a reduction from the true costs of £836.00.

Last update : 10-02-2008 14:46

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