When is a drunk not a drunk? Police have been accused of entrapment after sending amateur actors into pubs to order drinks while swaying and announcing to bar staff in a slurred voice “I’m hammered”. Two actors visited ten pubs in Bexley, southeast London, and managed to get served in every one of them despite reeking of alcohol, slurring their words, fumbling their change and shoving other customers on their way to the bar.
They later repeated the performance at a conference for local publicans and bar managers who insisted, unanimously, that they would be refused service and asked to leave. They were stunned when a senior police officer revealed: “You’ve already served them.” Under current legislation, bar staff caught serving alcohol to intoxicated drinkers are liable for an £80 fixed penalty notice or a fine of up to £1,000.
Although the bar staff served the hired actors they can not be prosecuted because they were not actually drunk. John Madden, chairman of the licensed trade body Guild of Master Victuallers, condemned the exercise as a waste of police time.
He said: ”It is a terrible idea and I am surprised the police think it is worth doing. They cannot prosecute anyone for serving an actor who is pretending to be drunk. I’m really not happy with this. At the end of the day it’s entrapment, but it’s entrapment where the staff haven’t done anything wrong because the actor isn’t even drunk.”
There's a news video, with brilliant drunken acting, here.
3 comments:
This is a great idea to keep police morale up... Especially if there is nothing more serious to solve such as rape, murder, serious assault, burgalry, fraud etc...
Must be nice to have nothing to do. Calling the police here often results in 4+hour waits or no shows if it isn't an emergency.
I should preface this by saying I think the law against serving intoxicated patrons is stupid and outdated, but...
This is hardly entrapment, since no one is being charged with anything. Public education and crime prevention are part of what police do, and this is probably a more effective way of reducing the number of drunken patrons who get served than simply staking out bars and arresting people would be.
PS: I wish I could get a job acting drunk in pubs. Sounds like fun!
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