Liquor shops fail in another police blitz

Another round of pseudo-juvenile liquor store stings by police has revealed a small improvement in industry compliance in asking for identification.

The initial operation, which used young-looking police cadets aged 18 and 19, found that 72 per cent of takeaway liquor retailers failed to check their ages.

In a rerun of the sting last week, cadets were able to buy alcohol 56 per cent of the time without showing identification.

Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said independent liquor stores performed worse than outlets owned by big corporations. He said he had met a senior representative from one of the corporations who said they would now do their own test purchasing as well as issue final warning notices to employees in stores that had failed the police test.

Mr O'Callaghan said he had not heard from the Liquor Stores Association since the first operation was conducted but police would contact the industry if it failed to contact them. "And if we need to, we'll go to the director of Liquor Licensing and ask for further conditions to be placed on those stores that don't comply," he said.