Confiscated alcohol still missing, say students

The organisers would not be charged as they had followed instructions and removed the alcohol, say police. Photo / Herald on Sunday

The student organisers of an after-ball where police raided a van-load of alcohol say they do not know what happened to the booze.

Last Saturday, Year 13 student Monique Tordeich and two friends were still at Pakuranga College's official ball at the Ellerslie Convention Centre when police arrived at their after-function venue, a warehouse in Onehunga.

They'd been tipped off that alcohol was to be served to minors so they outlined with the commercial party planners Miss Tordeich had hired, who were waiting at the warehouse, what charges they could face should this go ahead.

The alcohol was driven away in a white van, which Miss Tordeich presumed belonged to the party planner, but she said she didn't know where it was taken.

The 18-year-old was in one of the buses that took students from the ball to the warehouse. The buses were followed by police to make sure they were still heading to the venue.

The girls had used about $2500 from ticket sales - which were $55 a head - to buy alcohol for the 380 party-goers. They had dropped the liquor off at the warehouse in their own cars before the ball.

Miss Tordeich said she hasn't heard from the party planner since the incident but wants the alcohol back in the hope she can return it to the store to get the money back.

She will then return about $10 to each party-goer.

Miss Tordeich hasn't tried to contact the company herself.

"We didn't really want to make a big deal about it because we feel like we already got them in trouble when the police turned up."

The girls had organised about 10 to 15 parents to chaperone the after-ball.

Parents behind a makeshift bar would distribute one drink at a time to students. The teenagers would swap their empty bottle for another drink.

All students at the after-ball had handed in a consent form, filled out by parents, which said there would be alcohol at the function, Miss Tordeich said. "Parents were going to take the cans off the kids if they thought they were too drunk. We were all annoyed at the alcohol situation. I think they went a bit overboard, the police did."

Auckland city police area commander Andrew Coster said the organisers of the after-ball would not be charged as they had followed instructions and removed the alcohol.

Police last week sent out a letter to 40 Auckland schools saying excuses from after-ball organisers such as "their parents gave them permission" to drink or "it was a private function" would not be tolerated.