Think be­fore giv­ing a sip of Punche-de-Crème to a child or any oth­er al­co­holic con­tained bev­er­age as a mat­ter of fact be­cause it could land you up in jail for two years along with a $7,500 fine.

This was the warn­ing giv­en by the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice’s pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer ASP Michael Jack­man. Jack­man was speak­ing on the CNC’s Morn­ing Brew yes­ter­day morn­ing.

Quot­ing from the Chil­dren’s Act 12 of 2012 and the Liquor Li­cences Act 84: 10 Jack­man made it clear that sell­ing al­co­hol to mi­nors and/or giv­ing al­co­hol to mi­nors is an of­fence.

“The first of­fence there is a fine of $7,500 and sec­ond of­fence $10,000 and one-year im­pris­on­ment up to two years,” Jack­man said.

“Do not be care­less and do not leave al­co­hol ex­posed and in the reach of chil­dren. Be re­spon­si­ble…even those who sell do not sell to chil­dren un­der the age of 18. It’s in black and white. Al­co­hol is not for chil­dren. No sip!” he added.

He al­so warned par­ents and guardians of be­ing ex­tra vig­i­lant while shop­ping dur­ing this Christ­mas sea­son.

“In the ex­cite­ment and the heat of the mo­ment as it were, some adults for­get to pay at­ten­tion to their chil­dren.

“Be more care­ful about the younger chil­dren be­cause they can be tak­en away eas­i­ly from us, in just a few sec­onds they can go miss­ing so we are ad­vis­ing peo­ple to keep an eye on their chil­dren,” he added.

To the adults who can­not take their chil­dren with them, Jack­man gave a stern warn­ing to them as to whose care they leave them in,

“Put cer­tain things in place for su­per­vi­sion and we rec­om­mend that per­sons who are su­per­vis­ing their chil­dren are known per­sons maybe rel­a­tives or babysit­ters who have been well vet­ted and they have trust in to se­cure and pro­tect their chil­dren.”

In cas­es where chil­dren go miss­ing, Jack­man urged that a miss­ing per­son re­port is filed to the near­est po­lice sta­tion as soon as pos­si­ble, “that 24-hour pe­ri­od that was there long ago no longer ex­ists.

“Any pe­ri­od that chil­dren are un­ac­count­ed for it is ad­vis­able to lodge a re­port to the po­lice.”

Reporter: Rhondor Dowlat