Pub landlord claims under-drink campaign is 'entrapment'

Jul 5 2008 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A PUB landlord has hit back over a police sting to target under-age drinking.

Pete Murphy, who runs the Beaumont Arms at Church Lane, Kirkheaton, spoke out after one of his staff was fined for serving a 15-year-old boy.

The teenager had been sent in undercover in a joint operation between the police and West Yorkshire Trading Standards.

As reported in the Examiner on Thursday, pubs in Scissett and Milnsbridge also failed the test purchase.

Mr Murphy said: “I don’t condone under-age drinking – I’m dead against it and I know we should be questioning people who don’t look 18.

“All my staff know the law.

“I don’t want to cause problems and I know the police have a job to do but this was entrapment.

“They treated my experienced bar staff like a criminal and she was in tears about it.”

Insp David Glover, who was involved in the operation, said there had been reports of under-age drinking at all the pubs concerned.

He added the teenagers used in the sting looked their age.

But Mr Murphy said: “I don’t know who the people are that are making these complaints. Nearly everyone who drinks in here is over 35. This is not a kids’ pub.

“I have turned plenty of under-age drinkers away. I turned a load of kids away during the Yetton Rant festival, so I know what the drill is.”

He added: “There’s no way the lad looked 15.

“He did not look like a child and I guarantee that if the same lad went into every pub in Huddersfield, nine out of 10 would serve him.

“If I had been serving at the time, I probably would have served this lad.”

Assistant manager Richard Ingram, who was on duty on the night of the police operation, added: “They shouldn’t be doing this in such an underhanded way – trying to fit people up. They should be more open about it.

“They should be going into bars in town – there are plenty of places where kids go. This is not that kind of pub.”