Sidmouth police seize booze haul from underage drinkers
Ref shs police and booze. Picture: Clarissa Place - Credit: Archant
Police seized more than 80 cans and bottles of booze from underage drinkers on carnival night in Sidmouth.
Saturday’s haul – valued at more than £100 - included cider, larger, beer, vodka, sours, rum and amaretto. Cannabis, canisters of nitrous oxide and drug paraphernalia were also seized by officers.
Sergeant Andy Squires said three sozzled youngsters were seen vomiting ‘all over the place’ – with one having to be treated by paramedics.
He added that, in a separate incident, a drunken teenage girl vomited and urinated on the back seat of a police car as she was being taken home – leaving the vehicle out of action for two shifts. The girl and her parents cleaned up the car the following morning.
“There are a couple of messages,” said Sgt Squires. “If parents are giving their children packs of alcohol to take with them, then don’t bother - we will have it off them and it’s a waste of money.
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“If the children are buying it, save your money and spend it on the waltzer.
Sgt Squires added: “The vast majority of 15- and 16-year-olds cannot handle the quantity of alcohols they are carrying on their back.
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“If we hadn’t have been confiscating the alcohol, we would have had a lot more problems.
“It would be much easier still if they did not have it in the first place.”
The Sidmouth policing team used an AlcoBlow device to detect booze disguised in soft drinks bottles.
PC Simon Blyth said: “It’s a handy piece of kit. The machine itself has the ability to detect if there is any alcohol in the drink. What it will do is analyse the vapour and the atmosphere around the detector and, if alcohol is detected, the light will go red.”
All confiscated items were disposed of by officers.
