Woman becomes first person banned from EVERY pub and club in the country

A woman has become the first person to be banned from buying or drinking alcohol anywhere in England and Wales.

Laura Hall, 20, was issued with a Drinking Banning Order - nicknamed Booze Asbos - which bars her from entering any pub, club, off-licence or bar.

The two-year order also bans Hall from buying alcohol at any other establishment or shop, carrying it in an unsealed container or drinking it in a public place.



Last orders: Laura Hall was fined £75 after being found drunk near her home in Droitwich, Worcestershire

Police applied to magistrates after Hall was convicted of breaching an Asbo imposed for drink-related anti-social behaviour.



She has been convicted of a series of public order offences, and had flouted bans from pubs and clubs through local Pub-Watch schemes in her home town of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.

Kidderminster Magistrates' Court heard yesterday that Hall faces a £2,500 fine if she breaks the conditions of the order.

Sergeant David Roberts, of West Mercia Police, said: 'There have been some Drinking Banning Orders issued already but this is the first to be issued on a nationwide basis.

'It bans Laura Hall from drinking or buying alcohol in any licensed premises across England and Wales. The conditions will also help to protect the public from the anti-social effects of Laura's behaviour.'

Officers applied for a DBO rather than another Asbo because Hall would be at risk of prison if she breached it again.

'We want to rehabilitate her rather than send her straight to jail, and hope the banning order will help Laura address her problems,' he said.



Under the terms of the order, Hall must attend an approved alcohol-misuse course. If she completes it without breaching any of its terms, the DBO could be lifted after 12 months.

Since their introduction in September, police and local authorities can ask magistrates to impose the orders on anyone responsible for alcohol-fuelled crime or anti- social behaviour to stop them drinking or entering licensed premises.

They cannot be issued to anyone with mental health problems or alcoholics.

But Rachel Seabrook, spokesman for the Institute of Alcohol Studies, said: 'I think most of the disorder problems we see around alcohol reflects a lack of police enforcement powers and policing laws.

'I am not opposed in principle but I do have doubts about whether it's a realistic thing to enforce. How can a police officer in, say Wales, know whether this women has been banned if she turns up in his town?'

A study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation last year found that female binge drinking had almost doubled over the last decade. According to Government statistics, the number of women involved in alcohol-related crime rose 30 per cent between 2005 and 2007.



