Retail surgery: How can we ensure our temporary staff don’t sell goods to underage customers this Christmas, and what is the potential impact if this does happen?

With the busiest trading period of the year underway, temporary staff are a lifeline: quickly recruited and easy to dispense with when demand falls. But, says Dan Stowers, partner in the regulatory and criminal investigations group at Irwin Mitchell, there are dangers inherent in this type of employee. “They often have the closest contact with customers, yet can be unfamiliar with the detail of the business which employs them,” he says.

He adds that it can be a legal minefield and that perhaps one of the greatest dangers posed is the sale of age-restricted goods such as cigarettes and tobacco, knives, fireworks, alcohol, DVDs, videos, games and even liqueur chocolates. “With regulators seeing Christmas as a key time to conduct test purchases, untrained, temporary staff can leave a business vulnerable,” says Stowers.

Retailers therefore need to have in place adequate systems to ensure they comply with the law. This might include training staff on the legal requirements, ensuring staff are aware of acceptable proofs of age, underlining personal criminal liability of staff if they break the law, checking all signage is legally compliant, and ensuring staff are aware of the disciplinary measures for failing a test purchase.

The potential impact of breaking the law in this area can mean that licences to sell certain products may be lost, fines up to £5,000 can be imposed and some offences may even lead to a prison sentence.