Friday 29 October 2010

Under-age drinkers are buying fake driving permits over the internet


Under-age drinkers are buying fake driving permits over the internet to get served in bars and off-licences.
Police and door staff have seized cards which can be bought online for £40 or less.
The most popular is the fake international driving permit which, at first glance, is similar to a genuine United Kingdom driving licence.
Police in Market Harborough were alerted to the fakes recently when several youngsters tried to get into clubs or buy alcohol.
Sergeant Pete Jelbert, of Harborough police, said: “It has become apparent that these fake IDs are freely available as ‘novelty’ items from various unscrupulous websites.
“We are concerned because on a busy Friday night in a local pub these cards may be accepted by door or bar staff.”
One off-licence manager in Market Harborough said teenagers were regularly attempting to buy drink using the permits.
Claire Middleton, of Bargain Booze in the High Street, said: “Fake ID is a real problem and I have instructed all my staff to be on the look out.
“The international driving permit is the favourite and very tricky to spot. It is identical to the latest UK driving licence save for the wording.
“We get them at least once a week. At the weekend I challenged one lad and attempted to confiscate the card. He got shirty so I informed the police instead.”
Police and bar staff in the town have managed to seize some cards.
Police Community Support Officer Rob Sleath, who polices the town’s pubs and clubs, said “The easy availability of these fake IDs is what is worrying. If these were presented to busy staff in a dimly-lit bar, problems could occur.”
He said possessing a fake ID was not an offence but it was illegal to use them as proof of age to buy alcohol.
One website offers a range of fake IDs. The cards are produced in Spain and mailed back to the customer.
Prices range from £10 for a proof of age or student card, to £40 for the fake international driving permit.
The problem of fake IDs bought over the internet surfaced in Leicester more than a year ago.
Kev Whelan, spokesman for Hinckley Pubwatch, said: “Members of our group have been alerted to them.”
Mr Whelan, who runs the Bar Vis-a-Vis, said: “They are very convincing and look like a driving licence at first glance. They are often used by 17-year-olds who are chancing their arm.”
He said: “To avoid doubt now, Hinckley Pubwatch members insist on UK driving licences or passports only.”
Police are asking people who know anyone using fake IDs to call police on 0116 222 2222 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Friday 17 September 2010

NCPLH licensing qualification to be re-named

NCPLH qualification to be re-named

From our Company news letter July 29th, 2010

From the 1st August 2010, the NCPLH licensing qualification will be renamed the Level 2 Award for Personal Licence Holders (APLH). The change comes as a result of a strategy to simplify qualifications in a new framework.

The APLH will continue to be delivered as a one-day training course with a 40 question multiple-choice exam at the end of the days training..

Changes to policy designed to simplify qualifications resulted in the creation of 'OFQUAL' as the qualifications regulator, and a new Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) to replace National Database of Accredited Qualifications.

Once again personal licence training tries to stay ahead of the competition; we are currently developing a new series of websites and blogs to provide delegates up-dated information on the new (APLH) Personal Licence Holders Level 2 Award.

We also understand that some of the multiple choice questions from awarding bodies such as EDI have been up-dated and the terminology of the questions have been simplified. This should help candidate who struggle with English.

Personal licence training in conjunction with it’s training partners and associates will continue to offer over 100 courses for the new APLH licensing qualification throughout England & Wales. The licensing qualification for Scotland will remain unchanged.

Our APLH personal licence holders course book and training course content is also set to be updated. To help avoid unauthorised sales to minors we have expanded our course contents to include identifying fake identification, how fake i.d cards are obtained and adopting a challenge 25 policy or challenge 21Policy - Which is better for the high street retailer?

We look forward to training more personal licence holder over the coming twelve months.

More information on the change can be found on our website
http://www.personallicencetraining.co.uk/

and further info for Scottish licensing laws can be found on
http://www.personallicencescotland.com/

Dean Carr

Senior Licensing Consultant

Personal Licence Training Limited

OFF licenses and pubs in Worcestershire have been found selling alcohol to children

Pubs still selling booze to kids – findings

Out of 34 off licences and 13 pubs visited by the county’s regulatory services team using child volunteers who look their true age, six sales occurred. Two were at off licenses in the Droitwich area while four occurred at two pubs in Redditch and two in Kidderminster.

In each case the sellers did not challenge the volunteers for identification or ask them their age. Investigations are now underway and offenders could be hit with a fine of up to £1,000.

Tracey Blanchard, Worcestershire’s fair trading officer, said it was “very alarming” that nearly a third of the pubs visited sold alcohol to the youngsters. “They should certainly have been challenged and at the very least asked for identification,” she said. “We will be continuing our investigations into underage sales across the county.”

The visits in the Wychavon, Redditch, Wyre Forest and Malvern Hills districts were carried out at premises targeted on the basis of information from the police and local intelligence.

Source: Redditch Advertiser

Personal Licence Training Limited offer responsible alcohol retailing courses and personal licence holders courses every week in Birmingham and Worcestershire you can visit their web site at

http://www.personallicencetraining.co.uk

Approval to use foreign language papers for the NCPLH/APLH qualification.

Personal Licence Training Ltd is pleased to announce that they have been granted approval to use foreign language papers for the NCPLH/APLH qualification. The Personal licence holder’s qualification for England & Wales is now available in several languages.

To confirm - the languages available are:

• POLISH

• URDU

• BENGALI

• CHINESE

• TURKISH

Personal Licence training is currently setting up a network of foreign language centres to help deliver the personal licence qualification to a wider spectrum of clients from more nationalities. There first network of centres will be aimed at the Polish community working within the hospitality industry.

The company reports it has already trained several Polish trainers and invigilators to deliver the personal licence qualification. The new Polish licensing centres will go live on the 1st of October 2010. Course dates have been set in London and Wolverhampton.

Mr Surendra Panchal who heads PLT’s London office will soon be offering the APLH/NCPLH qualification in Urdu and Bengali. If you are looking to become an approved associate, introducer or approved training centre please contact;

Mr Dean Carr at Personal Licence Training Limited on: 0121 459 6080 for more information.

Tuesday 7 September 2010

Changes on licensing law for England & Wales


From April, irresponsible drink promotions and the dispensing of alcohol by one person directly into the mouth of another (“the dentist’s chair” is but one example) have been banned and the provision of free drinking water on licensed premises is required.
Banned “irresponsible drink promotions” are those which are “carried on for the purpose of encouraging the sale or supply of alcohol for consumption on the premises in a manner which carries a significant risk of leading or contributing to crime and disorder, prejudice to public safety, public nuisance or harm to children”.
Promotions such as “all you can drink for £10” are now illegal.
From October 1, it will become mandatory to have in place an age verification policy (for instance “challenge 25”) and to offer smaller size measures of alcohol (for instance 125ml glasses of wine).
A “responsible person” (defined as the premises licence holder, the designated premises supervisor, or a person authorised to sell alcohol) will be liable on conviction for breach of any of these conditions to a fine of up to £20,000 and/or six months imprisonment.
The conditions will be deemed to be entered on the premises licence and do not need to be printed on it to be effective. It is essential that these conditions are brought to the attention of all those working in the industry.
Looking further ahead, the Queen’s Speech in May made it clear that the Government would be looking carefully at the licensing regime introduced by the Licensing Act 2003 and that changes would be made.
The forthcoming Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill will, in the words of the Home Secretary, “tackle the drink fuelled violence which is blighting many of our communities”.
The total costs to the tax payer of alcohol related crime and disorder is between £8billion and £13bn.
As a first step, the Home Office is consulting on “Rebalancing the Licensing Act”.
Proposals considered in the consultation paper include increasing powers to refuse or revoke licences, increasing licence fees both generally and also to pay for policing late night drinking, banning below cost sales, an overhaul of temporary event notices, revocation of licences for non payment of fees, extending the proximity criterion for residents representations and many others.
If you want to have your say you have until September 8. Seewww.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/consultations.

Thursday 2 September 2010

FAKE I.D. Warning!

FAKE I.D. WARNING FROM Personal Licence Training Ltd


More and more retailers are being caught selling alcohol to under age persons!

All retailer need to be more vigilant and aware of fake identity cards

which are available on the internet from around £20.00. If you get

caught selling alcohol to minors you may loose your licence and also

be fined up to £5,000. The following links are top results from search

engines on the internet. Please take a close look at them?

Remember that in England, Wales & Scotland there are two types of

driving licence

1.) Full Driving Licence (colour pink with one black & white photo, it

will state in words "Driving Licence")

2.) Provisional Driving Licence (colour Green with one black & white

photo, it will state in words "Provisional Driving Licence")


NOTE National Identity Cards, Motorcycle Permits, European Driving

licence, International Driving Permit, Provisional Motorcycle Permit.

DO NOT EXIST THEY ARE FAKE!

REMEMBER the new style "Driving Licence" was introduced on the 1st

July 2007 This means any person under 20 years of age will more than

likely have a New Photo Card Licence. You can view a copy of both the

new and old driving licence on the attached files.

NOW TAKE A LOOK AT SOME FAKE ID WEBSITES

http://www.fakeidentification.co.uk/

http://www.myfakeid.co.uk/

http://www.fluxcard.com/

http://medical-identity.com/medical-id-cards-c-29.html

http://www.fakeidman.co.uk/fakeidman-fake-id-collection.html

This is just a small selection Google returns "About 2,420,000

results" for the search term "fake id cards" .

If you are presented with an old style Driving Licence by a young

looking person!

BE VERY VIGILANT!

TAKE THE CARD FROM THEM - CHECK IT - CHECK THE PHOTO - CHECK THE DATE

OF BIRTH REMEMBER YOU CAN HOLD A DRIVING LICENCE AT THE AGE OF 16 Years?

Example 1). -Mopeds with an engine size of up to 50 cc and a maximum

speed of up to 50 km/h

Minimum Age 16 years



Example 2). - You can apply for a provisional Driving Licence at 16

years for a moped or 17 years for a car

More information see the direct.gov.uk link below

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/WhatCanYouDriveAndYourObligations/DG_4022547

Good luck and happy retailing!

REMEMBER NO REAL I.D. NO SALE

Please forward this email to other retailers you know

Advice given by Personal Licence Training Limited

website http://www.personallicencetraining.co.uk

Head OfficeTel: 0121 459 6080

Scottish website http://www.personallicencescotland.com

Thursday 26 August 2010

NCPLH mock exam online quiz

Online NCPLH QUIZ
Personal licence training Ltd has launched a new interactive on line quiz for the National Certificate for Personal licence Holders. The qualification is due to be re-named shortly to the Award for Personal Licence Holders. The new online NCPLH or APLH quiz is designed to test candidates knowledge and understanding of the Licensing Act 2003 for England & Wales. You can  find the quiz on our main websitePersonal Licence Training and also our London Website or test your knowledge now just click; online NCPLH quiz

Good luck

Post up-date 2013 our online quiz is the most popular on the internet so we have added a new pdf version for you to download FREE of charge; Download APLH exam paper

Looking to book your licensing law course! Book online now

Alcohol Licence – How do I get one?

A step by step guide. This article is intended as a guide and not as a full explanation of alcohol licensing law. You can get full advice from the team at Personal Licence Training Ltd (Tel 0845 388 5472).

Contact your local Council Licensing department and request forms. Most councils will have a pack they can send with information to help you through the process. You need:

Application for a Premises Licence

Consent of a Premises Supervisor

Declaration

Certificate of Posting of Public Notice and the Public Notices (Notice of Application for Grant of premises licence)

You will need at least one Personal Licence Holder. They must be over 18 and be responsible with no relevant convictions. They have to be licensed with the local council in the area they live in. If there is no Personal Licence holder (for example if they leave your employ) you cannot sell alcohol so chose someone permanent or a couple of people. Contact their local council for the application forms Disclosure of Convictions and Application for a Personal Licence.

The Personal Licence Holder will need an APLH certificate (formally NCPLH) for England, and Wales or a SCPLH certificate for Scotland – (find a local course here). The course also covers the application process – which is really helpful. There’s a multi-choice exam at the end and results available within a week. Re-sits can be done easily without re-sitting the whole course. You can contact Personal Licence Training Ltd for more information. An online mock exam can be found here.

Form DP1 available from the Police. You will get a certificate back which will confirm that you do or don’t have convictions. (Alternatively you can ask the team at Personal Licence Training Ltd to do this for you)

You will need to supply two forms of identification with your request for the Police check. You will need two passport type photos for your Personal Licence. They will need certifying as a true likeness of you on the back by someone of standing as with a passport application. The Personal Licence Application will state exactly what is required.

Once you’ve collected all the info you need you can complete and send off your Personal Licence Application.

You need to mark the plans with fire escapes, toilets, kitchens and other relevant information as directed by the Premises License application form. If you don’t have plans you may have to contact your landlord who may charge you for this.

It’s a long form but not as bad as it looks. Photocopy the form first so that if you make a lot of mistakes you’ve got a spare copy. The main areas covered are business and people information, activities you want to do, opening times, how you operate (see the next step) and how you meet the four licensing objectives.

Protection of Children From Harm

Public Nuisance

Prevention of Crime and Disorder

Public safety

This section is best done on a separate document and attached to your application – you can then make corrections and change it without redoing the whole application. You need to simply spell out how your shop operates and how you will ensure that you meet the four licensing objectives (above), cover things like number of staff, training, age checks, security, health and safety

All premises must have a Premises Supervisor, who is also a Personal Licence Holder. They will be first point of contact if there’s any trouble. Once they’ve got their Personal Licence, they will need to complete the Consent of a Premises Supervisor form to show they agree to be nominated for the role. This form is sent off with the Premises Licence.

Talk to the Personal Licence Training Ltd Team about any points you are unsure about. Are there other licensed shops in the area who could read through your application for you or even the tutors from the licensing course?

You need to post copies of your application to a wide number of authorities to give them chance to object: Your local Police, Fire, Environmental Health, Planning, Social Services, Health & Safety Executive, Trading Standards are a good start. Your application pack will probably give you guidance and may even give you their addresses.

You need to put an advert in the local paper to announce you are applying for a Licence. Wording for the advert is usually provided with your application forms. Time your advert to be in the paper a few days (but no more than ten) after you post the application off.
Make sure you include everything – there’s usually a checklist. Cost is dependent on the rateable value of your business (and extra costs if there are more than 5,000 people on the premises at any time).

Fill in and stick up the Notice of Application for Grant of Premises Licence on a nearby lamp post. This has to stay up 28 days. When you eventually take it down you need to complete the final form and send it in to confirm you’ve had the Notice up.

Your local licensing team may contact you about you application for clarification if needed – but if there’s no objections you’ll be putting your first case of beer on the shelf in a few weeks.

There is an annual fee to pay to keep your licence.

These last for ten years – you will need to ensure that they are renewed at this time.

Scottish Licensing Law site re-vamped

Our Scottish website http://www.personallicencescotland/ has been updated and our new training dates for Scotland have been added. If you are looking to take over or run licensed premises in Scotland you will need a Scottish personal licence. A personal licence will allow you sell and authorise the sale of alcohol from licensed premises. Full details for on Scottish licensing law can be found on our website. for regular news up-dates sign up to our licensed trade news blog at http://www.alcohollicence.org/

Friday 30 July 2010

E - Learning courses for the Hospitality Industry

Did you know?

Food and drink represents the largest manufacturing sector in the UK, employing more than 500,000 people nationally and around 45,000 people alone in the North West of England.

According to the British Hospitality Association, the hospitality industry is made up of more than 127,000 businesses and employs a workforce of 1.6 million people.

There are approximately 22,000 hotels and guest houses, plus around 16,000 bed and breakfasts, in the UK. Restaurants employ more than 500,000 full-time and part-time staff.
 
To ensure high standards in food and drink establishments, training of staff is a fundamental and essential factor. 
 
Our range of new E-learning courses have been developed to make basis training easy, flexible and interesting. Our new range of online courses cover the following
 
Licensing Law

  • National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders
  •  Award for Responsible Retailing
  • Award in Under Age Sales Prevention (AUASP)
  • Scottish Award for Licensed Premises Staff (SALPS)
  • Drugs Awareness course
Health & Safety
  • Fire Marshall
  • Manual Handling
  • Health & Safety Level 2
  • Food & Safety
  • Food Safety (Level 2) Catering
To find out more visit the e-learning page on our main website
http://www.personallicencetraining.co.uk/NCPLH_E=_Learning.htm

Thursday 29 July 2010

Should staff training for the sale of alcohol be compulsory?

Today's Big Question ????

In England and Wales, should staff training for the sale of alcohol be compulsory ? In Scotland under the 2005 licensing Act it more or less is! The law in Scotland states anyone working part time, full time
paid or un-paid, behind a bar or retail sales counter must have a minimal of two hours training on the 16 criteria under the Licensing Act (2005) Scotland.

In Australia and in most US states responsible alcohol training for staff is compulsory!

Local Councils are set to review their statements of licensing policy in January 2011. I wonder how many will add conditions about staff training? Will this help reduce un-authorised sales to individuals under the age of 18?

What do you think????? comments please

APLH personal licence holder re-named from NCPLH

NCPLH qualification to be re-named

July 29th, 2010

From the 1st August 2010, the NCPLH licensing qualification will be renamed the Level 2 Award for Personal Licence Holders (APLH). The change comes as a result of a strategy to simplify qualifications in a new framework.

The APLH will continue to be delivered as a one-day training course with a 40 question multiple-choice exam at the end of the days training..

Changes to policy designed to simplify qualifications resulted in the creation of 'OFQUAL' as the qualifications regulator, and a new Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) to replace National Database of Accredited Qualifications.

Once again personal licence training tries to stay ahead of the competition; we are currently developing a new series of websites and blogs to provide delegates up-dated information on the new (APLH) Personal Licence Holders Level 2 Award.

We also understand that some of the multiple choice questions from awarding bodies such as EDI have been up-dated and the terminology of the questions have been simplified. This should help candidate who struggle with English.

Personal licence training in conjunction with it’s training partners and associates will continue to offer over 100 courses for the new APLH licensing qualification throughout England & Wales. The licensing qualification for Scotland will remain unchanged.

Our APLH personal licence holders course book and training course content is also set to be updated. To help avoid unauthorised sales to minors we have expanded our course contents to include identifying fake identification, how fake i.d cards are obtained and adopting a challenge 25 policy or challenge 21Policy - Which is better for the high street retailer?

We look forward to training more personal licence holder over the coming twelve months.

more info on our main website http://www.personallicencetraining.co.uk/

Dean Carr
Senior Licensing Consultant

Personal Licence Training Limited

Two Strike Rule

From December 2009

Yellow card for two Leicester city retailers, Personal licence training attended two hearings this week as Police and Trading Standards crack down on underage sales in the city. PLT was instructed to provide training and licence advice to both retailers. Both city retailers had to agree to new conditions being imposed on their licence. One more failed test purchase could mean the loss of their alcohol license’s, as Leicester operate a two strike rule- meaning two failed test purchases and you could face revocation of your licence.

more inf on staff training can be found on our website
http://www.personallicencetraining.co.uk/
and in Scotland please visit
http://personallicencescotland.com/

Blackpool website up and rolling

Posted January 2010

Happy new year to all our customers, old and new. January proved an early start for our licensing department with two new premises licence applications being granted in the first week of the New Year, Mr A's Restaurant in Plumstead London and North Bound Service Station in Northants. The company also launched it's new web site for Lancashire & Blackpool and hope to expand it's operations in the North West of England. We are also working with CPL Training to develop and deliver a new range of E-Learning products for the hospitality industry; these should be going live in March 2010 and will be added to all of our websites. We will also be offering courses and training for Designated Premises Supervisors (DPS) during 2010 and also under development is NCPLH training courses in Punjabi, Hindi and Gujarati. For personal licence courses (NCPLH) in Lancashire check out http://www.personallicenceblackpool.co.uk/

Personal Licence Training Limited and CPL Training Limited Join Forces!

From April 2010

Personal Licence Training Limited and CPL Training Limited Join Forces!

The Midlands and North London’s leading NCPLH training provider have joined forces with CPL Training Ltd. CPL Training are the North’s leading training provider in hospitality qualifications. Managing Director of Personal Licence Training Limited (Stephen Carr) said “Our mission is simple to become the dominate force in providing quality NCPLH licensing qualifications throughout the United Kingdom”.

Personal Licence Training Limited are set to invest a further £250,000 in their I.T Department to help develop more on line traffic to their existing websites, and to develop further websites with interactive e-learning courses on line for their existing and new clients. Daniel Davis the Managing Director of CPL Training has already invested £500.000 in developing a new range of hospitality based on line training products for the industry. Dean Carr (Marketing and I.T Director) said “we are currently on a recruitment drive to recruit more training providers and business introducers from all communities. We will also be looking to expand our network of professional invigilators throughout every major town and city in the United Kingdom. A recognised professional Invigilator in every major town and city will make licensing qualifications a simple task for our joint clients. Our business clients will be able to study at home or work using ether interactive on line courses or if they prefer PDF workbooks!”