Cops grin as minors in `sting' go thirsty

LUCY CRAYMER
Police are raising their glasses in celebration after two 15-year-olds used in a "sting" failed to get licensed premises in the Hastings district to serve them liquor.
Police, Hastings District Council and the Hawke's Bay District Health Board set up the sting but the youths failed to net a single purchase without being challenged for proof of age.
Hastings police Senior Sergeant Bob Gordon said they had visited 11 on-license and off-licences with two 15-year-old volunteers and neither had been served or let into a pub.
"They passed with flying colours. We are very, very pleased," he said.
"It looks like the message is getting through. This it the result that we want."
They had visited premises which had earlier been caught selling to minors.
In the previous operation, in which eight licensed premises were checked, four served alcohol to the under-age volunteers - Icons, in Havelock North, Murphy's Bar and the Angus Inn's off-licence in Hastings, and the Cape View bottle store at Haumoana.
Icons will go to the Liquor Licensing Authority on March 29 and faces up to a week's suspension for selling to minors, Mr Gordon said.
He thought the random checks and publicity over the consequences had made at impact on licensed premises, and those working in them realised the consequences of serving alcohol to those under 18.