Super Liquor stores in Dunedin and Mosgiel were temporarily
closed recently by the Liquor Licensing Authority after staff
sold alcohol to a 16-year-old girl.
A last-minute change in Parliament will have the Alcohol
Reform Bill put through its third and final reading next
month, bringing forward likely requirements for Dunedin bar
owners to pay higher fees.
Three Invercargill premises operated by the local licensing
trust sold alcohol to a 16-year-old boy during part of a
controlled-purchase operation on Friday night.
The Government's proposed Alcohol Reform Bill was "very much
stronger" than current legislation and could make life "quite
uncertain" for licensees, former Liquor Licensing Authority
Judge Bill Unwin said in Queenstown yesterday.
A Cromwell restaurant owner last year convicted of indecently
assaulting two former employees and offering to supply
cannabis to a person under the age of 18 at one of his
restaurants will lose his liquor licence and his ability to
enter his restaurants during business hours.
A Dunedin bar owner has
criticised the police over what he says is bias and a lack of
consistency in punishing licensees for selling alcohol to
minors.
Seven Dunedin and Mosgiel liquor licences or business
operations were suspended this year after employees sold
alcohol to people as young as 15 in a series of undercover
police stings.
Two recent rulings by the Liquor Licensing Authority identify
where the body thinks the contentious boundary between
personal responsibility ends and host responsibility starts
as it relates to the hospitality industry.
Alexandra's Criterion Club Hotel's liquor licence has been
suspended for 48 hours and general managers Corranne and Tony
Flannery have had their managers' certificates suspended.
