SIC hush over who sold youngster drink

SHETLAND Islands Council has refused to name the three licensed premises in the islands which were caught serving alcohol to under age drinkers in October last year.

The three retailers, one of which is believed to be a supermarket, were captured during a police run test purchasing scheme.

Northern Constabulary sent a teenager aged between 16 and 18 to the isles to buy alcohol at eight premises, three of which served them.

The three were sent warnings and on a second visit there was no repeat offending.

The police sent a report to the council’s licensing board and to the procurator fiscal, who decided not to take legal action.

The licensing board met on Wednesday and decided to issue a written warning to one of the retailers.

The other two were deemed to have implemented the right policies, training and procedures to avoid underage sales in the future.

Board chairman George Smith said that the council had been advised by the police not to make public the identity of the retailers involved.

It has emerged that advice came from the data protection officer at Northern Constabulary’s Inverness headquarters.

However different regions have different policies on confidentiality in these matter and the issue will be reviewed with the formation of a national police force in 1 April.

A month ago a hearing into whether the Lerwick kebab fast food shop Turkish Kebab should be allowed to keep its late licence was aired in the full public glare, with the proprietor Saban Kusmus losing his licence.