Health Editor Barry Nelson talks to police about their efforts to reduce under-age drinking – including targeting the people who sell alcohol to children or buy it for them.

WHEN it comes to children being admitted to hospital because of drink, the North-East is near the top of the pile. Darlington has the unenviable record of having the second highest number of under- 18s admitted to hospital in England.

County Durham is a little better, but still ranks 138th out of 152 primary care trust areas in England, with one being the best and 152 being the worst.

So where is all this illicit booze coming from?

Isn’t it illegal to sell alcohol to under-18s?

Sergeant Tim Robson, a substance misuse officer who covers North Durham for Durham police, does his best to stem the flow of booze to under-18s, which fuels anti-social behaviour, petty crime and, sometimes, much worse.

“When the schools are off you know where the kids are going to be. It is early afternoons on Fridays and Saturdays that you can find groups of kids who are trying to get alcohol,”

says Sgt Robson.

“We target specific areas and work with residents’ associations to find out where the trouble spots are.”

Tim says they have a good idea which shops are selling alcohol to under-18s and, thanks to a recent change in policy, Durham police have been cracking down hard on shopkeepers who ignore the law and sell booze to youngsters.

“Last year we decided that we didn’t need to seek authority to do test purchases of alcohol using a young person,” says Sgt Robson.

This change in policy means that in the first six months of this year, police in North Durham have identified shopkeepers selling alcohol to under-18s on about 120 occasions. This compares to only 23 in the whole of last year.

The teenage sons and daughters of police officers are normally the bait in the trap, going into shops and supermarkets and trying to purchase alcohol.

Most retailers are very strict in how they enforce the no drink for under-18s rule and, in some cases, Tim is aware of supermarkets deploying staff to eavesdrop on the conversation of adult customers who appear to be buying alcohol for their children.

“I have been told they have trained staff who watch the alcohol aisle very closely. Last week they overheard a mum asking her teenage daughter which kind of white wine she liked.

When they went to the counter they were refused the sale.”

Sgt Robson is not convinced that low-cost alcohol sold at supermarkets as part of special offers is necessarily a problem.

“I don’t think raising the cost of alcohol is going to make a difference. The supermarkets are not to blame, it’s the people who sell the alcohol and the people who buy it on behalf of the kids.”

Tim feels strongly that parents need to take more responsibility for the behaviour of their teenagers – and need to stop making the situation worse by buying alcohol for them.

“I know that in Peterlee and Seaham they have seen increased domestic violence brought about because alcohol was brought into homes on a Friday night by mums and dads who are giving the kids a drink to keep them quiet and keep them in the house,” he says.

This situation often ends in “disorder and fights” when the parents get back home after going out drinking.

One of the serious problems is the way that retail staff are subjected to intimidation and threats of violence by children or by older teenagers trying to buy alcohol for younger teenagers “They are refusing to sell half a dozen bottles of strong cider to older teenagers because they know it will be given to children. They can then get quite abusive.”

However, even if the shopkeeper gives in to intimidation, there are still ways of tracking down illicit booze.

Sgt Robson says: “If we catch an 18-year-old who has passed alcohol on to a child, or we catch a child with a drink, we can track it back to the premises where it was bought, look at the till receipts, work out when it was bought and look at the CCTV recordings. We have successfully prosecuted in this way in the past.”

But he says the crucial thing is to ensure that all retailers selling alcohol are given the right training so they can deal with people who are trying to buy alcohol illegally.

One way of trying to stop children drinking is to adopt the kind of policies followed in Darlington.

In May, a new project called Stay Safe began, trawling the streets of Darlington to get rowdy, drunk and drug-using young people into a place of safety.

Under-18s found to be behaving anti-socially, drinking alcohol or using drugs are spoken to by officers and either escorted home or taken to a place of safety – usually Central House, in Gladstone Road – from where their parents, or an appropriate adult will be able to collect them.

This is followed up with an interview with the parents present, with the aim of trying to prevent similar behaviour.

If it does happen again, enforcement action could be taken.

The first step is to get the young person and their parents to sign an Acceptable Behaviour Agreement. If this is breached, the police could apply for an Anti-Social Behaviour Order, or Asbo.

Ultimately, if the behaviour continues this could result in prosecution.

Across the North-East, police officers regularly confiscate lager, beer, cider and wine from under-age drinkers.

But last year, Darlington police donated hundreds of litres of alcohol seized from youngsters, as part of an operation called Summer Nights, to help raise money for St Teresa’s Hospice in the town.

More than 200 cans of beer and more than 50 assorted bottles of alcohol were raffled or drunk by residents.

■ Balance, the North-East alcohol agency wants to hear your views on alcohol. To take part in the North-East Big Drink Debate visit northeastbigdrinkdebate.org.uk