A Llanelli pub has had its licence reviewed after two 15-year-old girls were sold alcohol.
Carmarthenshire County Council’s licensing committee carried out the review of the premises licence of Stamps in Stepney Street, Llanelli, last week.
Police carried out a test purchase operation on October 30 and two 15-year-old girls were served with two bottles of Smirnoff Ice. They didn’t have any form of identification on them and were not asked their age or to produce any ID.
On December 12 police found a 16-year-old girl at the premises after producing her sister’s driving licence. On Boxing Day there was an incident involving a 15-year-old girl which resulted in another customer being glassed.
The authorities and the premises management agreed a number of new conditions for the licence but couldn’t agree on the need for plastic bottles and glasses.
Police licensing officer Constable Hugh Davies said that on Boxing Day there was an incident involving a 15-year-old girl and her 24-year-old sister in which two other women were hurt, one suffering a knee injury and the other having injuries consistent with being struck with a glass.
Premises licence holder Lance Troy said business would suffer if Stamps was forced to use plastic glasses and bottles while other premises did not have to. Some customers did not like drinking from plastic and others liked to drink from the bottle. Transferring those drinks to plastic glasses would slow down serving of customers.
He said: “A lot of our business is selling beer during the day with meals. Regular customers have told me that they would complain if they were served their ‘Worthies’ in a plastic glass.”
The committee decided that the premises licence holder should be warned as to future conduct particularly about selling alcohol to under-18s, and that only plastic glasses and bottles should be provided on Bank Holidays and Bank Holiday Sundays.
Executive board member for housing and public protection Cllr Hugh Evans said: “The authority has a clear duty under licensing legislation to protect young children from harm.
“We take the issue of under age drinking very seriously and a licence review is a way of preventing problems from recurring.”
