Age Verification and Refusals

Test Purchasing: How Underage Sales Are Caught and What Happens Next

How trading standards and the police run test purchases, what a failed test means, the persistent selling offence and how to prepare

A test purchase is an attempt by a volunteer aged 15, 16 or 17, working with trading standards or the police, to buy alcohol. If the sale goes through, the venue has failed, and what follows depends on how well the operator can show it was doing everything else right. Test purchasing is the main way underage sales are detected and the trigger for the persistent selling offence that can close a premises. This article explains how operations are run, what a failure leads to, and the preparation that makes the difference between a warning letter and a licence review.

Key takeaways

Test purchases use volunteers aged 15 to 17 working with trading standards or the police, and a completed sale is a failure.

A failure means a fixed penalty for the server, a visit and a second operation within three months.

Two sales in three months is the persistent selling offence: up to £20,000 and three months' suspension, or a voluntary closure.

Policy on the wall, refusals log with entries and dated training records are what stand between a warning and a review.

How Test Purchase Operations Work

Trading standards officers and police licensing teams recruit young volunteers, confirm their age with documents, photograph them on the day so their appearance is recorded, and send them into premises with a small amount of money and clear instructions: do not lie about their age if asked, do not present false ID, leave if challenged. An officer waits outside or observes inside. Premises are chosen from complaints, intelligence about underage drinking in the area, previous failures and random selection. Operations are more frequent around exam results, festivals and the run-up to Christmas.

What Happens After a Failed Test Purchase

The member of staff who made the sale is usually issued a £90 fixed penalty notice on the spot or reported for prosecution. The premises licence holder and DPS receive a letter and a visit, and the venue goes on the list for a second operation within three months. Officers will ask for the age verification policy, the refusals log and the training records for the staff member. If those are in order, the first failure often ends with advice and the fixed penalty; if they are not, a review application may follow the first failure alone.

The Persistent Selling Offence

Under section 147A of the Licensing Act, if alcohol is sold to under-18s on two or more occasions within three months at the same premises, the licence holder commits the persistent selling offence, with a fine of up to £20,000 and a possible suspension of the licence for up to three months. Alternatively the police or trading standards can offer a closure notice: a voluntary closure of 48 hours to two weeks in lieu of prosecution. Two failures also make a review application near certain, and a review can add conditions such as door supervision or reduced hours, change the DPS or revoke the licence.

Age Verification and Refusals

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Preparing the Venue

The preparation is the same as running a good age verification policy: Challenge 25 on the wall and in the till prompts, an acceptable ID list staff can recite, a refusals log with entries, and dated training records for every server. Add mystery shopping of your own, using staff from another site or a trusted friend who looks young, and treat a failed internal test the way trading standards would, with retraining and a note on file. The operators who survive a failed test purchase are the ones who can show the failure was one person's mistake in a system that works.

What to do next

Run your own test purchase every quarter

A young-looking friend or a colleague from another site buys a drink. Log the result, retrain if needed, and keep the record.

Common mistakes to avoid

Mistake

Blaming the server and changing nothing

Instead

The second operation is coming within three months. Retrain everyone, audit the log and brief the whole team, because the offence attaches to the premises, not the person.

Frequently asked questions

Can a test purchaser lie about their age?

No. Volunteers are instructed not to lie and not to present false ID. If asked their age they answer truthfully, and if challenged they leave.

What is the fine for selling alcohol to someone under 18?

The server can receive a £90 fixed penalty or a fine on prosecution. The licence holder faces up to £20,000 for persistent selling, and the licence can be suspended for up to three months.

Age Verification and Refusals