Minors were able to buy alcohol at five Tauranga bars and restaurants caught in a sting operation.
Police and the Tauranga City Council led the operation last Friday, visiting 16 licensed venues in Tauranga, Mount Maunganui and Pāpāmoa.
Five failed a compliance check by selling alcohol to a minor, the council said in a media release today.
Previous operations had primarily targeted off-licence premises such as bottle stores, grocery stores and supermarkets.
In the latest operation, the minor was able to buy alcohol and sit down at the venue, providing another opportunity to check their age.
“Staff did not take appropriate steps to request identification or confirm the patron’s age and admitted to inspectors they assumed the individual was over 18 years of age and legally able to purchase alcohol.”
The council’s chief licensing inspector, Sam Kemp, said they were surprised and disappointed by the operation’s failure rate.
“We had expected that there would be much better compliance from these types of establishments and it’s really disappointing that we have seen these failures from these five premises.”
Kemp said there were “clear deficiencies between legal obligations and good practice and the actual behaviour” on age checks.
Kemp said while it was not a legal requirement to verify the age of any patron who appears to be under 25, licensed premises should consider it good practice.
This was a good reminder for venues to ensure staff were properly trained and vigilant about meeting the requirements of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act.
Tauranga alcohol licensing inspectors would discuss the failures with the relevant parties and lodge suspension applications with the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority.
The council would seek suspensions for both the managers on duty when the breaches happened, and the licences of the bars and restaurants that failed to meet their legal obligations.
The council declined to name the premises involved at this stage as the matters were being prepared for enforcement action.
Kemp said the council would continue to run operations to test compliance, ensure public safety and minimise alcohol related harm.
Similar stings last year resulted in several bottle stores and a supermarket being caught selling alcohol to minors – suspensions followed and a tavern and bottle store in Welcome Bay closed after losing their licences.
Kemp said at the time there had been a significant increase in compliance failures in recent years.