Darwin fish and chip shop breached BDR 10,000 times, Liquor Commission finds

A DARWIN fish and chip shop will go dry for a month after it was found to have breached the Territory’s tough booze laws more than 10,000 times

A Darwin fish and chip shop is alleged to have breached the Territory’s tough booze laws more than 10,000 times

A DARWIN fish and chip shop will go dry for a month after it was found to have breached the Territory’s tough booze laws more than 10,000 times.

Kim’s Fish n Chips at Stokes Hill Wharf will lose its liquor licence for 28 days from Saturday for the breaches dating back to 2017.

The breaches were only discovered after an off-duty Liquor Commission compliance officer was not asked for ID when he bought a Crown Lager at the store in January 2019.

An investigation by the compliance officer found the BDR scanner at the premises had been used an average of just once a day between the introduction of the BDR in September 2017 and January 2019.

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Following the chance visit by the officer in January 2019, the scanner was used an average of 25 times each day.

The Liquor Commission estimated the fish and chip shop breached regulations 10,550 times during the period prior to the January 2019 visit.

In a separate ruling, the Darwin River Tavern was found by the NT Liquor Commission to have breached the rules in 138 instances between June 9 and 15 last year.

Those breaches included failure to scan customers’ identification through the BDR, and serving customers who were on the BDR.

The breaches were discovered after a member of the public reported to the liquor commissioner the pub’s attendant had forgotten to return her licence to her after buying booze.

As the patron waited to collect it, she saw a number of transactions while her licence was in the BDR scanner.

Darwin River Tavern representative Alison Woolley apologised to the commission and said the staff who executed the transactions were from overseas and “unaware of the seriousness of the offences they were committing”.

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Ms Woolley said the employees – who have since left the NT – did not receive correct BDR training.

Despite the pub’s mea culpa, the commission will suspend its takeaway liquor licence for 48 hours from Friday at 9am.