A Whangarei liquor store will close for three days for selling alcohol to minors and the owners have been warned the outlet's future could be in jeopardy if it is caught again.
The licensee/owners of Super Liquor Kamo, Vincent and Kenneth Stead, have agreed to suspend the store's licence for three
days from 8am on April 15. The general manager's certificate of the store's manager, Nicholas Hampson, will be suspended for six weeks from the same day.
The Liquor Licensing Authority has ordered the suspensions by consent, but pointed out that this was the third time the licensee had been caught selling alcohol to minors.
"Should any further incidents of a similar nature occur, the licensee must realise that the continued integrity of the off-licence may be in jeopardy," the authority said.
Whangarei police Alcohol Harm Reduction Officer Sergeant Howard Clement told the authority hearing that Super Liquor Kamo failed a controlled purchasing operation on December 17, 2010, and sold to a minor.
He applied for suspension of the store's off-licence on January 24 but before the matter could be heard, alcohol was again sold to a minor during a controlled purchasing operation on February 13.
Vince Stead said the store had had no such problems with the Sale of Liquor Act for many years.
"Then over the past two years we've had three errors. One of the people [who made the error] doesn't work here any longer," he said. "[The staff] have been told about this sort of thing and I hope everybody learns something and it won't happen again."
The Sale of Liquor Act sets these maximum penalties for selling, or providing, alcohol to an underage person:
$10,000 fine for a licensee, and/or a suspended licence for 10 days.
$10,000 fine for the outlet's duty manager.
$2000 fine for the staff member who sold the alcohol.
$2000 fine for a person who buys or supplies alcohol to a minor.
$2000 fine for a parent who provides alcohol to underage children but leaves them unsupervised.
$2000 fine for adults who allow underage children to use their premises to drink alcohol.
