Supermarket giant Tesco has been banned from selling alcohol for a month at one of its stores in Glasgow.
The suspension, which applies to the self-service check-outs at Tesco`s St Rollox branch, will run until December 15, hitting the retailer at the busiest time of the year for alcohol sales .
The store’s alcohol licence was suspended earlier this week after city councillors heard how a teenager was able to purchase a two-litre bottle of cider without being asked for identification in early September.
The 16-year-old boy, who was working as a test purchaser for Strathclyde Police, took the bottle of cider to the self-service checkout area. The sale was authorised by a 17-year-old sales assistant without checking the customer’s age, which goes against Tesco’s policy of challenging alcohol purchasers who look under the ago of 25.
Councillor Stephen Dornan said: “It is necessary and appropriate to suspend the sale of alcohol in the self-service area for four weeks. Thereafter the licence will be varied so that all sales through self-scanning must be authorised personally by the personal licence holder.”
Tesco has also been ordered to increase the number of fully trained “personal licence holders” manning the self-service check-outs, and retrain the 17-year-old member of staff.
A spokesman for the company said: “We pride ourselves on being a responsible retailer. On this occasion we fell short of the high standards we expect.”
