Man sold child alcohol on Facebook (From Western Telegraph)

Man sold child alcohol on Facebook

7:41pm Wednesday 10th March 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

A man who sold alcohol to a child on Facebook has been given a 12-month community order, police said.

Richard Wright, 28, from Carlton in Nottinghamshire, had been trading under the name Booze Monkeys on the social networking site.

His Facebook page had been up and running since 2008, police said, and officers believe he has sold alcohol to a number of under-age drinkers through the website.

Wright's phone number was on the page and customers of any age could contact him and ask him to deliver alcohol to them, Nottinghamshire Police licensing officer Paul Horton said.

The Facebook page had the tagline: "Beer delivered to your door ... Friday and Saturday 11pm til 4am."

Wright was caught on February 13 after police and trading standards officers got a 15-year-old volunteer to try and buy a bottle of vodka and two crates of beer from him.

A short time after the boy placed the order, Wright delivered the alcohol to him and was then arrested, Nottinghamshire Police said.

He was charged with selling alcohol to a person under 18 and selling alcohol without a licence, both of which he admitted.

He was sentenced at Nottingham Magistrates' Court, where he was told he would also have to complete 100 hours' unpaid work and pay £85 costs.

Facebook said it had now removed the page from its site. A spokeswoman said: "Marketing alcohol-related content without appropriate age-based restrictions is prohibited."