Just one pub served full pint in watchdog check (From St Helens Star)

Just one pub served full pint in watchdog check

6:03pm Wednesday 15th August 2012 in News

BEER drinkers could be getting short changed at dozens of local pubs, according to undercover checks by watchdogs.

St Helens Council’s Trading Standards visited 66 pubs to make checks that branded spirits were the genuine product and to test whether customers were served a full pint.

Officers, posing as customers bought 38 pints of bitter and lager from 19 local pubs.

They discovered only one pub served a full pint. Eleven of the pints were up to 10per cent short measure and a further 26 of the pints they bought were up to 5per cent short.

It means 97 per cent of the pints served were short. Written warnings were issued in the worst cases.

Watchdogs also checked that the well known branded spirits such as Smirnoff Vodka, Bacardi Rum and Gordons Gin, were not being replaced with cheaper products, a problem trading standards have highlighted in the past.

However, after making unannounced visits to 47 pubs, officers ruled all 93 spirit drinks were the genuine product.

Councillor Richard McCauley, Cabinet Member for Environmental Protection and Safer Communities at St Helens Council, said: “Even though times are difficult for our public houses, their customers should get what they pay for.

When beer is around £3 per pint, serving 10per cent less than the full pint is short changing the customer by 30p.

“I’m please to see that the work our Trading Standards team have done has paid off. Substitution of branded spirits with a cheaper product is no longer commonplace in the area.”