The Licensing Act of 2003 has many fine regulations including those to ensure that alcohol is sold Responsibly. One of the regulations is aimed to stop "drunken persons" from being served alcohol. The onus falls upon the person serving the alcohol to not do so, but unfortunately there is no definition of 'drunk'. This means that bar staff have to use some common sense (*blimey*) and subjective judgment.
The giveaway signs of 'drunkenness' will likely be a customer’s unsteadiness on their feet, glazed eyes, slurred speech and boozy breath. It is the bar person selling the alcohol who will be the one that could be prosecuted, so they need to be satisfied that the person isn’t drunk. On conviction, they could face a fine of up to £1000!
Interestingly there is no offence for a person who is blind drunk to attempt to buy alcohol, it is an offence however to purchase alcohol for someone who appears to be drunk (so watch out when it is your round) and even more interestingly if the police use "actors" to pretend to be drunk, there is no offence for serving alcohol to a person who is acting as if they are drunk, so all of that time spent by actors at RADA is wasted! Not too sure if it is an offence to buy alcohol for an actor who is acting as if he/she is drunk (will have to await a first case).
A number of police forces have recently employed actors to carry out some test purchases doing just that (pretending to be drunk). No prosecution could be brought to bear because as stated; serving a person pretending to be drunk is not unlawful.
Happy days.
Martin Read CMBII
Managing Director of www.inn-dispensable.com Personal Licence Courses
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