Under-age drinkers were almost four times more likely to get served in Auckland last year than elsewhere in the country.

Popular central-city bar 1885 Britomart Country Club could lose their alcohol licence for four days after being stung by police serving wine to minors - but it's not the only bar to be caught out.



Auckland City police statistics reveal that almost a quarter of Auckland bars and liquor stores targeted in "controlled purchase operations" last year were found guilty of selling alcohol to minors.



"Police conducted 285 off and on-licence premise visits. From those 285 premise visits, a total of 65 premises sold to a minor," a police spokeswoman said in statement.



Most of the premises tested were off-licences, with 17 large supermarkets or superettes failing.



There were 17 on-licences - bars, clubs and pubs - tested, of which 10 premises failed, the spokeswoman said.

That was a failure rate of 62.6 per cent of the on-licences tested - and 1885 Britomart Country Club was one of those.

GRAHAM COX / FAIRFAX NZ Britomart Country Club.

Nationally, without the skewed Auckland City statistics, the failure rate for controlled purchase operations would be 6.1 per cent.

However, with the Auckland City failure rate at 22.8 per cent, the national failure average is dragged up to 7.7 per cent.



Auckland City police youth and communities manager Inspector Mark Benefield said police were "concerned by the high failure rates for off and on-licensed premises in the city", but had actually managed to bring the statistics down slightly this year.



"The failure rate has come down significantly over the 12 months to the end of September 2015, to 15 per cent.



"This reduction is good progress and we are highly committed to bringing this down even further in the coming months," he said.



Meanwhile, 1885 Britomart Country Club is putting up a fight over losing its alcohol licence for four days.



On December 12 last year, the bar was stung by police selling to minors.



The business sold wines to two girls aged 16 and 17 without asking for ID.

In a decision last month by the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority, the bar and the duty manager were sanctioned.

Lawrence Smith Britomart Country Club

The bar was to lose its alcohol licence for four days, from 8am on Wednesday to Sunday, November 4-8.

The duty manager from the day of the licensing breach would also have his manager's licence suspended for 28 days from November 2.

However, police say the bar has appealed the decision to the High Court.

"On the day in question the bar had approximately 100 patrons present and there were 10 staff employed at the premises," the Authority decision said.

According to the decision, the bar was twice tipped-off about the police operation by Hospitality New Zealand on the day in question - and still failed to prevent the illegal wine sales.

"The company had been very aware of the prospect of a controlled purchase operation occurring," the decision said.

"On 12 December 2014 [the day of the operation] an email from Hospitality New Zealand Incorporated was forwarded to the company advising that there would be increased police activity and monitoring over the next two weekends and that controlled purchase operations would be occurring regularly.

"[Then] at 2.44pm on the same day the operations manager for the respondent company received a text message from a regional manager of Hospitality New Zealand Incorporated advising that controlled purchase operations were being carried out that afternoon."

The bar was stung by police at 4pm.

Hospitality New Zealand chief executive Bruce Robertson said tip-offs to association members was commonplace and was encouraged by police.

"On this occasion police gave us a heads up they were going to be doing it over two weekends. We generally have a pretty good relationship with police."

It was an "absolute coincidence" that the tip-offs were sent just hours before the controlled purchasing operation occurred, he said.

"We were giving our members a heads up, as we do. Police are giving us a heads up to do that.

"It's not about catching people out. What the police are intent on is getting compliance."

A police spokeswoman said that while police meet with Hospitality New Zealand to discuss compliance generally, officers "do not advertise or advise Hospitality NZ of specific dates, times or locations of controlled purchase operations".

While Robertson contended controlled purchase operations could be viewed as "entrapment" - "this isn't real young people going out, it's young people being set up to go out by police" - he said bars should be doing more thorough ID checks.

"Most premises have really good programmes in place … on these occasion [where staff sell to minors] they are often let down by individuals who don't follow the rules."