PHOTO
Despite stumbling into a liquor store drunk, a woman was sold a six-pack of cider.
She was a regular patron at Liquorland Prebbleton and was known to manager Jeremy Baars, who sold her the alcohol.
When the customer left the Christchurch store, she collided with a ram raid bollard outside, causing her to drop the cans.
Baars went outside, helped her pick up the cans and put them in her car.
He then intervened when she failed to start the car three times, taking the alcohol and keys from the woman.
A concerned member of the public saw the interaction and called police.
Police later applied to the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority for the cancellation or suspension of the store’s off-licence and Baars’ manager’s certificate.
Chairman of the authority Judge Robert Spear has now ordered the off-licence to be suspended for four days, from 8am on September 27, 2026, until 8am on October 1, 2026, and suspended Baars’ manager’s certificate for six weeks.
When contacted by NZME, Baars did not wish to comment on the outcome.
According to the authority’s decision, CCTV showed the woman, who is not named in the decision, pulling up to Liquorland on August 31, 2025.
She was seen stumbling as she left the car and entered the liquor store.
The footage showed her weaving through the aisles and bumping into objects before purchasing a box of Rochdale cider and heading back outside.
As she approached her car, she struck a ram raid bollard and dropped the box.
Baars came out of the store, helped gather the cans and placed them in the back seat before returning inside.
The woman then tried to start the car but was unsuccessful despite repeated attempts.
Baars then came back out of the store and had a conversation with her through the open driver’s door.
The CCTV showed that he reached into the car.
“We accept that he must have then taken the keys from the car,” Judge Spear said in the decision.
The woman then walked to her home nearby.
Baars took the alcohol back into the store, cancelled the sale and refunded the purchase to the woman’s partner later.
Police were directed to the woman’s property by the witness.
Following an admission by the woman that she had driven to the liquor store, drink-driving procedures resulted in a blood alcohol reading of 183, more than twice the legal limit for a conviction offence.
The woman was convicted of drink-driving.
“That blood alcohol reading confirms that she was grossly intoxicated at the time that she purchased the cider as, indeed, is abundantly evident just from the CCTV footage in any event,” Judge Spear said.
Baars denied selling alcohol to an intoxicated person when first spoken to by police.
However, he later acknowledged through his lawyer that a breach had occurred.
Judge Spear found the matter could be resolved by suspension rather than cancellation.
Regarding the penalty relating to the manager’s certificate, the authority took into account a number of matters “besides the disturbing ease with which” the woman was able to purchase alcohol while grossly intoxicated, Judge Spear said.
The authority was shown material indicating Baars had put strict guidelines in place to ensure alcohol was not sold to intoxicated people.
“We can only speculate as to what [could] have happened if [the woman] had been able to start the car and drive away with the alcohol,” Judge Spear said.
