Ben and Sarah Sims are calling for banks to block payments being made on children’s debit cards when trying to purchase restricted goods.
Photo: Nick Monro
A grieving couple want justice and for laws to be enforced after their underage teenage son was served alcohol in three different places, then drove drunk, killing himself.
Silas Sims was a strapping, confident teenager who walked into a bar, cafe and liquor store in Warkworth and bought alcohol with his own ASB bank card.
He then got drunk, hopped into his car, and tried to drive home with his mates. But Silas never made it.
He crashed his car, killing himself instantly. He was just 16 years old.
It was the night of July 19th, 2025.
“The first purchase, which was the [700ml] bottle of Jägermeister [which has an alcohol content of 35%], would get anybody trollied. That was through his debit card,” says his grieving father, Ben Sims, who is devastated that not one staff member checked his underage son’s ID and declined his request for alcohol.
He says that if someone has asked for ID, Silas “might have lost his confidence, and would have said ‘let’s go for a swim and get a burger'” and come home.
Instead, Sims and his wife, Sarah, are fighting for justice for their oldest boy. They have already successfully pushed for authorities to take action against the bar, cafe, and bottle store that sold the alcohol to their underage son.
Now they want banks to stop allowing payments for restricted goods – be it alcohol, vapes, porn, or gambling – to be made on children’s debit cards.
Earlier this year, they handed over a petition to the government, and they’ve also met with all the major banks, asking them to enforce their request.
But the couple tell The Detail that not one signalled a willingness to institute blocks, saying it’s not easy to implement.
“I don’t think that anybody can say that it’s fair to allow a 16-year-old to buy something that is illegal for them to buy,” says Ben Sims.
“We haven’t specifically said we want a law change from this. I think it should happen without it. The technology is there, it’s been used by other banks, it’s not rocket science, and to be honest, it’s sort of disappointing that we have to go to this.”
They say Westpac in Australia has already taken a moral stand, blocking under-18s’ credit and debit cards from being accepted in bottle shops, nightclubs, bars and vape shops.
They hope their petition will raise awareness in New Zealand, and perhaps put pressure on Kiwi banks to do the same.
“No one has said that it is anything but stupidly sensible,” says Sarah Sims.
Rob Stock, a journalist and father of two, has covered the story extensively for The Post. He agrees, telling The Detail that he backs the Sims’ campaign.
“Banks have … a social obligation to parents when they provide payment cards to children.
“And that social obligation is they should not be honouring payments in bottle shops and bars and vape stores.
“They are known as restricted merchants, and banks do know who they are; their systems do flag them.
“Now, the banks say that this would be technically difficult to do. However, banks are big, sophisticated, incredibly profitable organisations.
“None of them have told me this is not possible, and indeed other people working in financial services have told me it’s eminently possible, it just takes a bit of investment.”
Just how much money?
“I’m tempted to be cheeky and say ‘I don’t really care’,” Stock says. “Banks are very profitable, and while we don’t want them wasting money on things that are ‘nice to haves’, not essentials, I think this is essential, I think it’s part of their social licence to operate.”
The case is also reigniting wider questions about New Zealand’s drinking culture – and whether enough is being done to keep alcohol out of young hands.
“You can just walk in there and order, and there’s a 90 percent chance you will get served,” Ben Sims says.
Under current laws, licensed retailers can face penalties for selling alcohol to minors. Yet concerns remain about enforcement, fake IDs, third-party purchases and how consistently age checks are carried out across the country.
In Silas’ case, Rob Stock reported for The Post last month that the “Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority (ARLA) cancelled the licence of Micmat Limited, trading as the Matakana Liquor Centre, owned by John and Louise Walsh, as a result of three different duty managers at the shop at 993 Matakana Road serving alcohol to minors on July 19 last year. One of those sales was to a friend of Silas’, who was just 17.
“DIG Matakana trading as the Matakana Village Pub at 11 Matakana Road, owned by Deborah Body, Liam Body and Ian Kowalski had its licence suspended for 21 days.
And Worn Out West trading as the Leigh Sawmill Cafe at 142 Pakiri Road, owned by Edward, Benjamin and Margret Guinness had its licence suspended for 14 days.”
“The real reason is there is no deterrent, really, to these outlets, as you can see in our case,” Ben Sims tells The Detail. He pointed out the case only went to court because he and Sarah pushed for it.
“There’s a bit of a slap on the wrist, but there really is no deterrent.”
Sarah Sims added: “Our case was incredibly unusual, according to the decision it seemed like it was only the second time that anyone had been hauled out for serving minors, since 2003.”
She says on July 19th last year, “so many things went wrong that day, everything that could go wrong went wrong – a shocking, incredible amount of things went wrong at every turn.”
She and her husband hope that by holding people to account and enforcing the law, things will turn out right for other underage Kiwi teenagers and their families.
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