Government guidance explains that there are five types of false documents: You may wish to explain the law to the customer, plus the fines you may face if you sell alcohol without valid proof of age.

If a customer tries to give you any of these as their proof of age then you should not approve the sale until a valid form of ID is presented. It’s more commonplace than you think for young people to borrow an ID card from an older friend or sibling to try and buy alcohol.Īside from passports, driving licences and PASS cards as stated above, all other forms of ID should not be accepted as proof of age. It’s essential that you check these things very carefully to ensure that the photo is of the right person and to make sure that it’s real, not fake. A Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) card.Įach form of ID must contain a photograph of the person, their date of birth, and an official hologram.When you ask a customer for identification there are only three acceptable proofs of age that you should accept: Yet this still presents us with a further problem: how do you know if the ID you are given is real? It’s against the law for a child to use a fake or borrowed ID to buy alcohol but this doesn’t mean that they won’t try.įake ID cards are easily obtained online or borrowed from older friends and siblings and so they commonly make their way into our bars, pubs, shops and supermarkets. You may already be familiar with the ‘ Challenge 25’ scheme which looks to help you with this – the scheme simply informs the customer that if they’re lucky enough to look under 25, then you will ask them for proof of age before approving the sale. By asking people to prove their age you will avoid accidentally selling alcohol to a minor and avoid facing the penalties for doing so. To help you adhere to this law it’s a good idea to ask anyone who you think may be under-age for identification. What if someone looks older than they actually are? This is a simple law to abide by but it can sometimes prove to be tricky in practice: Most people are aware that, under the Licensing Act 2003, it’s against the law to sell alcohol to anyone under the age of 18.

Fake police id card