Fines for teen drunks double

April 06, 2009

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THE number of fines issued to teenagers in Greater Manchester for being drunk and disorderly has more than doubled in the last year.

New figures show 120 youths aged 16 to 18 received fixed penalty notices in 2008, compared with 43 in 2007.

The number of men aged 18 who were fined for being drunk and disorderly has risen from 21 to 55. Police say they are continuing to address the problem, but insist they issued 22 per cent fewer fixed penalty notices compared to last year.

Assistant Chief Constable Terry Sweeney said: "We note that these figures show a sharp rise in the number of fixed penalty notices issued for drunk and disorderly teenagers.

"Fixed penalty notices remain a valuable tool in our fight against low level crime, and in cases like this officers can deal with offenders swiftly and efficiently, without needing to go through the courts.

"Drunk and disorderly behaviour is antisocial, and we therefore must respond most effectively to the concerns of the communities that are affected, via our Neighbourhood Policing Teams.

"Overall, however, in Greater Manchester we have actually issued 22 per cent fewer fixed penalty notices compared to last year.

"We will continue to work with all of our partners to help address the issue of drunk and disorderly behaviour among a minority of teenagers."

The figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, come less than a fortnight after a report claimed British teenagers were the third worst booze drinkers in Europe.

More than half of youths aged 15 and 16 admitted regularly drinking to excess, according to research by the University of the West of England.

Out of 35 nations, only those in Denmark and the Isle of Man fared worse. Some 11 per cent of British teenagers also reported having used cannabis in the 30 days prior to the survey.

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dessie, manchester (06/04/2009 at 11:25)

simple take them back home and fine their parents £100 and double it the next time and the time after that.

Rob Wilson (06/04/2009 at 11:40)

I agree with dessie. A policeman could go outside our local shops on a friday / saturday night and quite easily round up the drunken kids, take them home and impose thousands of pounds worth of fines! Maybe that could help the hospitals that deal with the outcome of underage drinking etc. and perhaps, maybe the parents would be more concerned about what theyre children are upto!

Ace Shakespeare , manchester (06/04/2009 at 12:41)

Our liberal alcohol licencing is to blame,we have local shops selling booze as well as large stores infact we are flooded with alcohol in britain what do you expect when our kids are brainwashed with booze around them from a very early age .Kids learn by their suroundings and their parents and family.

PW, Manchester (06/04/2009 at 13:11)

One hundred and twenty in an area the size of Greater Manchester, in the space of a full year? Is that an achievement? Is it even remarkable?

It's pussyfooting about. With a bit of effort that could be multiplied by at least ten thousand. And bring it on. Put the money into the accident and emergency departments that have to pick up the pieces. Make them learn the hard way.

Anthony , Accrington,Lancashire (06/04/2009 at 13:38)

Parents who let their children underage drink in the streets and approve of it doing nothing to punish them when they do get in trouble under the influence of drink and/or even ply them with alcohol should have their children taken into care because they basically aren't fit to parent and are basically inadequate parents full stop.

Kris-Kross, Ashton Under Lyne (06/04/2009 at 14:35)

Why not offer help to quit alcohol instead of dreaming up money making schemes?

Anthony , Accrington,Lancashire (06/04/2009 at 15:34)

Oh yeah Kris-Kross,as if you can help kids who have a taste for booze to quit yeah right. Better to tackle and punish the parents who refuse to do anything about their children's underage boozing not with fines but with direct punishment of those parents and removal of their kids into social services care because parents who condone and allow their kids to underage booze are basically committing a form of childabuse which any well-to-do strict family would forbid and punish their kids for.

Black Flag (06/04/2009 at 16:23)

Ace: "Our liberal alcohol licencing is to blame,we have local shops selling booze as well as large stores infact we are flooded with alcohol in britain"

As usual with your loony authoritarian socialist ideas, it's always someone else's fault. The problem is that we have too many people like you who refuse to take any responsibility for their own lives.

Hamish Macbeth, Whitefield (06/04/2009 at 16:49)

""quite easily round up the drunken kids, take them home and impose thousands of pounds worth of fines""

The parents wouldn't be in and the officer would be left babysitting drunken children,.

What is needed is a national curfew - under 17 years and you have to be inside after 9pm until 5am - or in the presence and supervision of an adult over 30.
Those children breaching it should be detained and caged like stray dogs and the parents pay on collection else the parents get arrested and taken to court. The payment can go up each time the feral youth is detained. Social services also get informed.

Come-On-City. Manchester. (06/04/2009 at 20:04)

Is this from an increase in teenage drinking or an increase in a crackdown on teenage drinking?

Theowolfe (07/04/2009 at 09:44)

Once again a story demonising teenagers. When I was a teenager the same things happened with young people, we drank flagens of cider in the park. But at least we had youth clubs.

Now, we hear the sanctimonious preachings of some people, the Police and authorities, but no attempt is made to provide other outlets for young people. Instead we get dispersal orders and groups of more that two teenagers being 'moved on' by the increasingly fascistic Police.

Provide decent services for young people and then maybe we might have a moral right to persecute teenagers. At present we don't.

Anthony , Accrington,Lancashire (07/04/2009 at 10:18)

Well Theowolfe,teenagers and children wouldn't need to be demonised if they behaved in public and respected other people and their property;you would have a free-for-all if you were in power where police couldn't prosecute antisocial behaviour and parents couldn't be prosecuted either for failing to tackle it with liberal dogooding and the full right of youths to do whatever they like and break whatever laws they wish without any form of consequence for it. The dogooders and liberalists like you have had it their way for too long and look where it's lead, it's time youngpeople were punished for it whether by the police or whoever.

Black Flag (07/04/2009 at 11:07)

Anthony: "teenagers and children wouldn't need to be demonised if they behaved in public and respected other people and their property"

Most do, but you're so disturbed that you can't see it.

Maybe we should demonise, harass and beat you, because some of your fellow adults commit criminal acts against others.

I'm describing you as an adult in the loosest sense of the word there.

Anthony , Accrington,Lancashire (07/04/2009 at 11:21)

BF, not all young people and children behave;you're a children's dogooder who think children shouldn't be punished in any way doing whatever they like to break laws and stick fingers up at the establishment and you think parents who refuse to tackle their children's bad behaviour by refusing to smack and punish for it are RIGHT. I came from a time in the 70's where breaking the law/disrepecting other people/damaging property got a belt or slipper across the backside and sent to bed;since the tories outlawed punishment in schools and attempts to get smacking banned by parents have all but failed, youngpeople have become untouchable with police refusing to punish,kids being given humanrights to not be punished and parents kids being taken off them by social services because they have been smacked. I have adult friends who DON'T cause trouble BUT YOU DO.

Black Flag (07/04/2009 at 12:12)

Anthony, I see your capacity for drivel isn't fading.

"BF, not all young people and children behave"

I never said they did, as you well know. I said most don't cause trouble, as most adults don't. Intelligent people recognise that the purpose of the law is to act when one person harms another, but unfortunately it's been turned into a joke by governments trying to appease curtain-twitching busy-bodies like you who want everything short of breathing banned, especially for groups they've taken an irrational disliking to. When the law is mis-used to enforce the petty attitudes of the small minded, it shouldn't be a surprise if people lose their respect for it.

"I have adult friends who DON'T cause trouble BUT YOU DO."

What are you on about?

Anthony , Accrington,Lancashire (07/04/2009 at 13:10)

So BF if a gang of kids hung around outside your house drinking smoking being a nuisance etc and being abusive to passersby and local residents, all you would do is ignore it, in the hope it will go away and refrain from calling the police incase it "upsets their humanrights to hang round on streets and do whatever they want" and they get abusive towards you? Well you would wouldn't you!!!

Black Flag (07/04/2009 at 13:56)

Anthony, so long as they aren't sat on my window ledge, why would I be bothered about somebody smoking in the street? Try having a bit of respect for other people for once, rather than demanding that everybody fits in with what you want.

As usual, your point is based on lazy generalisations. You assume that hanging around on the streets and being abusive are the same thing. They aren't. There is nothing wrong with somebody hanging around on the streets and if you don't like the fact that we have public spaces, I suggest you go and live in a gated community or on a desert island, which will allow you to hide away from the big bad world that you are so scared of.

Theowolfe (07/04/2009 at 14:02)

Anthony,

If you have a problem with young people hanging around where you live, try talking to them. You might be pleasently surprised by the reaction you get.

Anthony , Accrington,Lancashire (07/04/2009 at 14:17)

Dogooder for children's rights that's what you are!!! Neighbours where a friend of mine lives got the police to clear and arrest a gang of kids at the top of my friend's street playing football very late at night when other people are asleep and children are in bed(have ever you EVER heard of the request"be considerate to other people when asked or told to do so"?,if NOT then obviously YOU haven't!),the neighbours on my friend's street had politely asked them nicely to keep the noise down and/or move on(not in a threatening way, and not in a confrontational way which guarantees disrespect from the young people involved and criminal damage etc) BUT they told the neighbours to get lost and they called the police and the kids got irate and abusive towards the police who had NO option but to bundle them into policevans and took them to Greenbank Police Station in Blackburn, and next day they appeared in court and were fined, not only that, those nuisance kids AND their families WERE also evicted by the local housing association(and they now vet EVERYBODY for housing who they take on). When youngpeople refuse to move on and/or keep the noise down when asked to do so by neighbours/local residents and the kids don't/refuse to do so,is it ANY wonder they take the law into their own hands,or where the policeforce IS efficient at their work CALL THEM TO GET RID OF THEM?

Theowolfe (07/04/2009 at 14:45)

Anthony,

I was a teenager in the late seventies, so am probably a similar age to yourself, but we are worlds apart in our mindsets.

I had a problem with some 12/13 year olds playing football in the road outside the house. Now I or my neighbours have the right to stop them playing in the street. The problem I had was the ball would come in the garden and broke some plants and a Japanese maple tree.

I invited them to come in the garden and I explained to them about the damage they could do and and the costs.

Since then I haven't had many problems.

I'm glad I don't have the degraded view of young people that you obviously do.

Anthony , Accrington,Lancashire (07/04/2009 at 15:04)

You're quite lucky theowolfe, some kids would refuse to bow down to you and see and/or recognise the damage/harm they may do to your property etc and laugh through your face and carry on whatever it is that might put yourself and/or your property at risk. In that case do you carry on being gentle george and put up with it OR take action where something or even yourself is at risk? By taking direct and draconian action either yourself or by use of police force where the kids don't listen and refuse to listen to you at least justice IS being done.

Angie33 , Manchester (07/04/2009 at 15:18)

Antony.You have been brought up to blindly obey the rules,right or wrong.
Please accept that some people know and do right without ever being threatened by violence.

Anthony , Accrington,Lancashire (07/04/2009 at 16:16)

Angie33 I may well have been brought up blind to obey right or wrong but at least it brought me up to CARRY on obeying and why not? I would administer the same treatment if I had kids because I want them to be respecting of rules in society,and I want them to show respect to others and/or their property and I WANT THEM to be lawabiding and realise that breaking or disrespecting rules and society and others in authority and/or breaking laws of the land come with severe consequences for breaking them;and if they get in trouble with the police I would INDEED be happy to give them a shock by asking for them to be locked up for a night to show them the errors of their ways and reasons why we have laws of the land and that breaking them leads to punishment for their actions whether it be by me OR the police.

Black Flag (07/04/2009 at 16:34)

Anthony: "Angie33 I may well have been brought up blind to obey right or wrong but at least it brought me up to CARRY on obeying and why not?"

Because people who aren't capable of thinking for themselves and follow the rules handed down to them without having any sense of right and wrong are a danger to everybody else. They are the kind of people dictators need if they want to carry out genocide, run concentration camps, etc.

Give me a choice between a society full of mindless rule obeying sheep or a society of people who have a sense of right and wrong and are prepared to ignore the law when it has been corrupted and I'll take the latter every time.

Anthony , Accrington,Lancashire (08/04/2009 at 07:43)

Well you would do Blackflag because you're a law/rulebreaker and you think laws/rules SHOULD be broken with NO consequences nor comeback when it affects others;I'd hate to see a country run by you with people constantly breaking the law with NO respect for authority,parents unable to smack their kids when they have done wrong because it's totally outlawed,police with their hands tied who can't do a thing about it and a total anarchic nightmare with property damaged,people stabbed shot and kicked to death when they tackle kids,property damaged by young people,kids throwing and setting off fireworks in the streets and giving grief to elderly people when they tell the kids to clear off and all other law/rulebreaking going on BUT SORRY YOU DON'T RUN THE COUNTRY MATE AND THE LAWS AGAINST YOUTH NUISANCE AND OTHER ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR ARE THERE FOR A REASON AND CHILDREN WHO PROVE TO BE A NUISANCE IN THE STREET BY WHATEVER ANTISOCIALBEHAVIOUR THEY HAPPEN TO BE CARRYING OUT DESERVE TO LOCKED UP,PARENTS DESERVE TO JAILED AND KIDS WHO CARRY OUT THOSE BEHAVIOURS DESERVE TO BE TAKEN INTO CARE. If I had kids and they came home themselves reeking of cider and lager on a day when they have to go to school the next day or the police brought them home because they were committing vandalism/graffiti or got picked up for underage drinking on the streets or getting hold of and setting off fireworks on the streets and in publicplaces(and it IS an offence for under18's to possess and discharge/letoff fireworks in publicplaces);they would get walloped and sent to bed because I do not approve of such behaviour and punishment for wrongdoing is what is sadly lacking in today's parents"my child's an agel he would NEVER do that"being the LIE that many parents and families trot out to police.

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