Serving a drunk customer isn’t just bad practice — it’s a criminal offence, personally, for the member of staff who pours the pint and for anyone who allows it. Refusing service well is a core bar skill that protects your licence, your staff and the customer. Here’s the law and the technique.
The law in two lines
- It is an offence to sell alcohol to a person who is drunk, and to allow drunkenness/disorderly conduct on licensed premises (Licensing Act 2003, ss.140–141). The fine lands on the individual seller and potentially the DPS/licence holder.
- It is also an offence for the drunk person to obtain or consume alcohol, and to fail to leave when asked — you have the law behind you when you call time on someone.
Spotting ‘drunk’ before the courts do it for you
There’s no breathalyser test at the bar — the standard is observable impairment: glazed eyes, slurred or loud speech, swaying, spilling drinks, dropped coordination, inappropriate behaviour. Train staff to assess at every service interaction, not just at the door. The customer who arrived fine three rounds ago is the one who catches venues out.
How to refuse without a scene
- Early and quiet: refuse at the bar, one-to-one, before the group orders again. “I can’t serve you any more alcohol tonight — can I get you water or food?”
- Blame the law, not the customer: “I’d be committing an offence if I served you” depersonalises it.
- No negotiation, no re-serving by a colleague: a refusal is house-wide; tell the team on the spot. The classic failure is the mate buying the next round for them — that’s a proxy sale to a drunk person and staff should refuse it too.
- Offer an exit: water, food, calling a taxi. Duty of care doesn’t end at refusal — ejecting a heavily intoxicated person alone into the night has ended in tragedy and in court.
- Log it: time, description, staff member, what happened. The refusals log is the same document that saves you on underage sales.
Backing your staff
A refusal policy only works if management visibly backs every refusal, even when it’s a regular, even when it’s quiet, even when they spend well. Put it in induction, rehearse the scripts, and cover it in accredited training — refusal skills are a core module of the APLH and our AUASP course.
Frequently asked questions
Can we be sued for refusing someone?
Refusing to sell alcohol to someone you judge to be drunk is lawful — you’re obliged to. Apply it consistently and non-discriminatorily; the risk lives in refusals that look like they’re really about race, disability or other protected characteristics.
What about a drunk customer who arrived drunk and isn’t buying?
Allowing drunkenness/disorder on the premises is the exposure — politely move them on, with the s.143 duty-to-leave offence behind you and police support if needed.
Does ‘one more won’t hurt’ ever hold up?
At a review hearing, with CCTV of a swaying customer being served? No. The councils’ enforcement teams run ‘drunk mystery shopper’ style operations in some areas — assume you’re being watched on the nights that matter.
Script it, train it, log it. The AUASP gives every team member the technique and the certificate in about an hour online.
Leave a Reply