He first entered the Matakana Liquor Centre alone after 2pm and asked duty manager Tracey Brown where the J\u00e4germeister was.<\/p>\n
She showed him, and he bought a 700ml bottle of the 35% alcohol spirit. He was not asked for ID.<\/p>\n
The Matakana Liquor Centre sold alcohol to minors on three occasions on July 19, 2025, the authority found.<\/p>\n
An hour and a half later, he and a friend arrived at popular music venue the Leigh Sawmill Cafe, in Leigh, 15 minutes\u2019 drive northeast of Matakana.<\/p>\n
Silas ordered two beers from owner and duty manager Edward Guinness.<\/p>\n
Silas was asked his age; he told Guinness he was 18 and was not asked to prove it.<\/p>\n
He failed at buying a second round, however, and was told he had \u201chad enough\u201d.<\/p>\n
Then, the pair met up with a third friend and again entered the liquor store.<\/p>\n
Silas bought a four-pack of rum and colas, while his friend bought an 18-pack.<\/p>\n
The Leigh Sawmill Cafe sold beer to 16-year-old Silas Sims and his underage friend.<\/p>\n
They were served by two different staff members, including duty manager Johann Graas. Neither was asked for ID.<\/p>\n
At 5.45pm, the pair went to the Matakana Village Pub, where they bought a rum and cola and a Guinness.<\/p>\n
Silas\u2019 two friends tried to dissuade him from driving home and tried to take his keys.<\/p>\n
But he persisted and, while driving along Leigh Rd, on a left-hand bend, he crossed the centre line, left the road and crashed into a concrete power pole in a paddock.<\/p>\n
He was pronounced dead after being removed from his car by paramedics.<\/p>\n
An autopsy showed he had 193 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. Drivers under 20 aren\u2019t allowed to have any alcohol in their system; the adult limit is 50mg.<\/p>\n
The Matakana Village Pub sold alcohol to Silas and an underage friend.<\/p>\n
Without fear<\/p>\n
Silas\u2019 parents described their son as outgoing, charming and fearless.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe could walk into a room and talk to anybody, from the day he could speak,\u201d his father said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t have enough fear,\u201d his mother, Sarah Sims, added. \u201c… And that\u2019s heartbreaking.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a lot of bad luck, and I so wish he was here.\u201d<\/p>\n
She told NZME her son looked older than he was.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is the kid that would get served. He looked 20.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time he was served at the Matakana pub, he was \u201creally, really rotten\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n
CCTV footage showed him stumbling around the pub.<\/p>\n
His mother became emotional as she said she wished someone at the venue, after taking her son\u2019s money, had also looked out for him.<\/p>\n
Warkworth teenager Silas Sims with his parents Sarah and Benjamin. <\/p>\n
Denying liability<\/p>\n
The venues responded differently to the police applications to have their liquor licences suspended or cancelled.<\/p>\n
The owners of the Leigh Sawmill Cafe and the Matakana Village Pub accepted the applications.<\/p>\n
However, the Matakana Liquor Centre, owned by Micmat Ltd, denied liability.<\/p>\n
Micmat owners John and Louise Walsh told the authority they had taken extensive steps to ensure alcohol was not sold to minors at their store.<\/p>\n
There were multiple wall signs at the shop, even for the staff, and rigorous staff training and declarations to ensure that the law was followed.<\/p>\n
Despite all these precautions, Silas and his friend were not asked for ID a total of three times in three hours, the authority found.<\/p>\n
They were therefore found liable.<\/p>\n
The duty managers<\/p>\n
Duty manager Brown, who sold Silas the bottle of J\u00e4germeister, had her manager\u2019s certificate suspended for two months.<\/p>\n
The certificate of the store\u2019s second manager, Graas, had already lapsed, and he had left the industry, so the application against him was dismissed.<\/p>\n
Leigh Sawmill owner Guinness admitted breaching the law and contributing to Silas\u2019 death.<\/p>\n
He told the authority he was \u201cembarrassed\u201d and admitted he had \u201cmessed this one up\u201d.<\/p>\n
His certificate was suspended for eight weeks.<\/p>\n
Silas Sims, 16, who died in a drunk-driving accident last year, was never asked for ID when buying alcohol, his mother said.<\/p>\n
Christopher King, duty manager of the Matakana pub at the time, gave evidence that, when Silas came into the bar, he was complaining of a splinter in his hand.<\/p>\n
There was a brief moment, as King shone a torch on Silas\u2019 hand and got him tweezers, when they were in close proximity.<\/p>\n
King told the hearing it never crossed his mind that Silas was a minor, as he appeared \u201cbroad-shouldered and confident\u201d.<\/p>\n
On reflection, he accepted he may have been distracted, but Silas had none of the \u201cred flags\u201d of drunkenness, such as smelling of alcohol.<\/p>\n
The authority found it \u201cdifficult to understand\u201d how King had not found Silas to be drunk, considering the teen left the pub and was killed 20 minutes later.<\/p>\n
King\u2019s certificate was suspended for 12 weeks.<\/p>\n
Consequences<\/p>\n
Leigh Sawmill\u2019s liquor licence was suspended for two weeks from April 14-26, and the business has closed for that time.<\/p>\n
The Matakana Village Pub, which now has a new owner, had its licence suspended for 21 days, from April 29 to May 19.<\/p>\n
Matakana Liquor Centre\u2019s licence was cancelled, and the company was given 21 days to close the business.<\/p>\n
Its lawyer, Andrew Braggins, told NZME an appeal against the cancellation had been lodged.<\/p>\n
A representative from Leigh Sawmill Cafe told NZME it felt the matter had been \u201cdealt with\u201d and did not wish to comment any further.<\/p>\n
Deborah Body, who owned the Matakana pub at the time, said she deeply regretted the incident.<\/p>\n
She had accepted all the applications the police made and co-operated \u201cfrom the outset\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew what we had done,\u201d she told NZME. \u201cThere was no question for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The liquor store owners declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Police said they could not speak about the proceedings as Silas\u2019 death was still before the coroner\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
They could not say whether any criminal charges would be laid in future for the same reason.<\/p>\n
Actioning change<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Silas\u2019 parents say taking a more \u201cpositive\u201d and active approach and effecting change has helped with their grief.<\/p>\n
Benjamin Sims, a web developer, said he looked at his son\u2019s bank statements after he died and noticed that purchases at alcohol stores were classed as \u201crestricted\u201d by the bank, because Silas was underage.<\/p>\n
He has gathered signatures for a petition that is currently before a parliamentary committee to require banks to restrict or block such payments.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Banks] make billions of dollars a year. [They] can afford to do this.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about alcohol; it\u2019s about all restricted goods.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ella Scott-Fleming has been a journalist for three years and previously worked at the Otago Daily Times, Gore Ensign and Metro magazine. She has an interest in court and general reporting. She\u2019s currently based in Auckland, covering justice-related stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Silas\u2019 parents, who pushed for the venues to be prosecuted, have told NZME they are glad there have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,20784,51,95166,9218,204568,3944,3549,15979,9828,20106,31046,11784,296,17095,37254,11926,28065,111,139,69,691,23897,10112,24035,204569,20307,3235,213,18834,5163,4054,1529,61,13506,6493,3608],"class_list":{"0":"post-395897","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-after","9":"tag-alcohol","10":"tag-auckland","11":"tag-axed","12":"tag-before","13":"tag-booze","14":"tag-car","15":"tag-crash","16":"tag-crashed","17":"tag-different","18":"tag-drove","19":"tag-drunk","20":"tag-fatal","21":"tag-into","22":"tag-jumped","23":"tag-licences","24":"tag-liquor","25":"tag-mates","26":"tag-new-zealand","27":"tag-newzealand","28":"tag-nz","29":"tag-or","30":"tag-pole","31":"tag-power","32":"tag-selling","33":"tag-silas","34":"tag-sims","35":"tag-sold","36":"tag-sports","37":"tag-suspended","38":"tag-teen","39":"tag-teenager","40":"tag-three","41":"tag-to","42":"tag-underage","43":"tag-venues","44":"tag-were"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}