Police have been accused of entrapment after sending amateur actors into pubs to order drinks while swaying and announcing to bar staff in a slurred voice “I’m hammered”.
Two actors visited ten pubs in Bexley, southeast London, and managed to get served in every one of them despite reeking of alcohol, slurring their words, fumbling their change and shoving other customers on their way to the bar.
They later repeated the performance at a conference for local publicans and bar managers who insisted, unanimously, that they would be refused service and asked to leave. They were stunned when a senior police officer revealed: “You’ve already served them.”
Under current legislation, bar staff caught serving alcohol to intoxicated drinkers are liable for an £80 fixed penalty notice or a fine of up to £1,000.
Although the bar staff served the hired actors they can not be prosecuted because they were not actually drunk.
John Madden, chairman of the licensed trade body the Guild of Master Victuallers, condemned the exercise as a waste of police time.
He said: ”It is a terrible idea and I am surprised the police think it is worth doing. They cannot prosecute anyone for serving an actor who is pretending to be drunk.
”I’m really not happy with this. At the end of the day it’s entrapment, but it’s entrapment where the staff haven’t done anything wrong because the actor isn’t even drunk.”
The fake drunks were hired from a local amateur dramatic group by Bexley Borough Council and Bexley Police, part of the Metropolitan Police, ahead of a seminar with 100 landlords, club managers and restaurant owners, on drink-related crime.
Stephen Murrant, chief inspector who organised the initiative, said: “I am disappointed that despite our efforts to educate and support licensees that staff saw fit to serve two outrageously behaved drunken actors.
“This has come as no surprise. In a recent survey of bar staff carried out in the borough, 98% said they saw drunk customers on some or most of their shifts.
“We routinely monitor what goes on in all our licensed premises and we will be robust in our actions if we find licensees or their staff fuelling alcohol related disorder by serving customers who are drunk.”
Clive Cain, head of public protection at Bexley Council, said: ”Whilst it is illegal to serve a drunk, the law does not define when someone is drunk. This pioneering initiative has demonstrated the ease with which drunks can be served. It has highlighted the urgent need for improvements in training, advice and managerial support for bar staff.”
Section 141 of the Licensing Act 2003 bans the sale of alcohol to a person who is drunk. Bexley Police say the force rarely prosecutes landlords but reports findings to the council, which takes such instances into consideration when considering renewing licences to serve alcohol.
The Times, p34