Organisers of the popular Glasgow festival TRNSMT are on the look out for dodgy dealers selling fake ID to under 18s during next year’s festival.
This summer a van was spotted driving around areas of the Gallowgate encouraging young people to fork out between £50 and £100 for the counterfeit product.
The Glasgow Times reported how children as young as 12-years-old stepped inside the van and had their picture taken before receiving their fake ID.
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Concerns have been raised by Glasgow City Council’s licensing forum that the same thing could happen again this year as the people operating this business were never traced.
A worried parent told members that children from 12-15-years old were being taken in by this scheme.
At the licensing forum Inspector Sean Ramsey said further measures would be taken to prevent this from happening.
Inspector Ramsey said: “I think next year we are going to work with TRNSMT organisers to prevent underage drinking.
“Not only are young people being bought alcohol by their peers but last year there was a van being driven around parts of Glasgow selling fake ID.”
Since 2018 the large number of fake identification being seized from young people has become a major issue.
Following the 2018 festival officers took the opportunity to host a seminar within Glasgow City Centre to carry out a document awareness input in a bid to help the trade identify false identification.
At the meeting on Tuesday Inspector Ramsey also pointed out that there was a problem with TRNSMT’s policy which states all children must be accompanied by an adult over 21.
He went on: “On the day children are asking adults to act as their guardian so they could buy alcohol on their behalf.
“I believe we need a new scheme in place which forces children to declare their real guardians in advance so we can double check it on the day and address any issues of children asking over 21s to act as their responsible adult.
“Our stewarding techniques are very robust particularly at this huge event.”
Next July Glasgow will see the return of ‘TRNSMT’.
The police department will be continuing to work with the organisers of this event in relation to the sale and supply of alcohol at the festival.
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Mairi Millar, head of licensing and democratic services, added: “A lot of fake ID has been confiscated at the last few years.
“We don’t simply turn people away en masse as this could cause problems in the city centre, we put them into a welfare facility while they sober up.
“We will still have to look out for these problems at future events.”
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