A third of Knox bottle shops fail to check ID of customers who look younger than 18

EVEN if you look younger than 18 it is not hard to get your hands on alcohol from liquor outlets in the outer eastern suburbs, tests run by a community health group show.

Some Knox bottle shops refuse to sell alcohol to young people without ID. Pic: supplied.

A SECOND undercover sting on outer eastern suburban bottle shops has found many are still failing to ask young people for identification.

Results of the May operation by Eastern Access Community Health found 12 of 37 randomly inspected stores in Knox sold young people booze without asking to see ID.

Program co-ordinator Deborah Cocks said it was a slight improvement from its first operation last July, when 11 of 27 venues did not check IDs. But she said it was “disappointing” that a third of the venues still did not check for proof of age.

“It’s a concerning statistic,” Ms Cocks said.

“We still need to see better compliance, which is why we keep testing.”

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Participants in the operation were aged between 18 and 22 and were chosen because they looked under 18.

Ms Cocks said stores weren’t reported to police because it wasn’t about exposing venues that weren’t compliant, but rather working with them on education.

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“We sent letters to all licensees and managers either congratulating them for not selling alcohol to a young person or reminding them of the law and of best practice in the service of alcohol,” she said.

“We want managers to be very clear in their feedback to staff.”

She said they stressed to licensees and managers that “when you sell alcohol to teenagers you are failing in your job”.

Ms Cocks said the data was not reviewed to see whether any bottle shop had failed to check IDs this year and last year. She said the operation was part of a broader approach to curb the binge-drinking culture.

She said in communities where it was hard for teens to obtain alcohol there was less teenage alcohol abuse and fewer alcohol-related injuries, assaults and deaths.