Underage drinkers in Oxfordshire to face year-long pub ban

Thames Valley Police for South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse said that local teams had seen a rise in the use of fake IDs, and anyone found using one would be given an automatic 12-month ban from all of the town’s pubs.

The initiative is supported by Pub Watch, a voluntary organisation which connects local publicans to work towards making social drinking safer and more responsible.

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Corinne Pryor of the Red Lion pub in Brightwell is involved in the Wallingford Pub Watch, and said the group fully supports the police scheme.

The Red Lion in Brightwell is part of Wallingford pub watch. “It’s a great initiative and obviously we want to discourage underage drinking and antisocial behaviour, because we all know what alcohol can lead to," she said.

“It’s not a huge problem in Wallingford that we talk about too much, because we know all the youngsters in the village – and we know their parents.”

“But there will always be 16 and 17-year-olds, trying to look 18 and trying to get into a pub and trying to use fake ID.”

The collaboration with Pub Watch means that if someone is banned from one pub in the area – for things like fighting, abusive behaviour towards staff, taking or dealing drugs, or underage drinking – they’ll be banned from all of the venues in town.

Mrs Pryor said: “Every publican takes it really seriously because it’s your license on the line, so everyone is checked.”

Charlie Kyriacou, who’s been in the pub industry for 42 years as a manager, licensing officer, and now a tenant at the Coach & Horses in Kinecroft, said; “I’ve been around the block a few times, I know all the tricks.

“We have got an influx of youngsters, I would call them gangs, trying to come and get drinks - it happens all the time in Wallingford now, especially up in town.

“They hang around outside the pubs and have too much to drink, they think they’ve developed muscles which they haven’t got, and they argue amongst themselves. It’s a knock-on effect.”

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Mr Kyriacou thinks its because there simply isn’t enough to do in Wallingford, despite it being a 'lovely little town'.

“You just can’t control 15-year-olds who have nothing else to do. I feel for them, but some of them are going about it the wrong way.”

He doesn’t think the police initiative will do enough to deter the underage drinkers: “They’re not thinking ‘in a year’s time I won’t get a drink’ – young peoples’ thinking is more short-term than that.

“It’s a step in the right direction to try and control it, but I think the way forward is more police presence.”

“I do think the police do a great job, they do the best they can on minimal resources, but they haven’t got the manpower to make their presence felt.”

Steve Baker, Pub Watch southeast representative, added: “Fake IDs are a perennial problem as, unfortunately, young people see underage drinking as a rite of passage without understanding that the licensee might lose their livelihood.”

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