Tackling proxy purchasing: Operation Taps, Newcastle

Adults who buy alcohol for children could be caught red-handed in a new crackdown on underage drinking. Professional witnesses will be used to monitor off-licences and supermarkets where police suspect so-called "proxy buying" is taking place. Newcastle Safer Communities Partnership has won £15,600 of Home Office funding for Operation Taps (Tackling Alcohol Proxy Sales).

The campaign started in Chesterton and Audley, and will now also target Newcastle town centre, Butt Lane, Wolstanton and Kidsgrove, for three months. In addition to the covert surveillance of off-licences and test purchase operations, the campaign will also see shopkeepers and customers being educated about proxy buying.

The funding will allow police to station professional witnesses outside off-licences. Adults who are caught this way face an £80 on-the-spot fine, and could be charged with a criminal offence. Trading standards officers will also monitor premises. PCSOs will visit 53 off-licences and supermarkets to point out the consequences of selling alcohol to under-18s, and hand out leaflets to parents. Police will also enforce alcohol prohibition zones.

Coloured carrier bags carrying an anti-alcohol message will be given to licensed premises, and a Bluetooth messaging device will be used to send text messages to mobile phones. NHS North Staffordshire will distribute information leaflets. Operation Taps will target all six neighbourhoods simultaneously during the February half-term week.  The Sentinel