Polish passport refused as valid ID at Aldi in Tewkesbury

“I would like to refer to my earlier post, The "sales assistant" would be responsible if this was a under age purchase or a test purchase, are you going to pay the fine for them? If you are unsure of an ID for the sale of Alcohol, tobacco, fireworks, knives, solvents etc or you believe an adult might be purchasing them for a minor then you HAVE to refuse service it's the law, if you don't know what a Polish passport looks like then you can't by LAW accept it as proof of age!”

“Regardless of all the justifications and counter-justifications posted, a store/shop/person can refuse to serve a customer with or without giving a reason. What does not come out from the report is whether the store assistant gave any other reason apart from not recognizing the Polish passport as bona fide proof of identity.

Apart from any adverse publicity arising from this episode, legally Aldi is in the clear.

This is one hand farcical and lack of staff training - are Aldi saying that they will only serve U.K passport, driving licence, or some other forms of ID from U.K organisations - and that then exclude all visitors, and residents who are from overseas not having any IDs given by U.K authorities - the manager or the supervisor should be sacked for negligence in staff training in such important matters. The same situation can arise for example with an overseas visitor with a non-U.K bank card requiring proof of ID, etc.”

“Tim as Takeaway22 says if the passport was good enough for International Custom & Excise and the Border Agency what about Aldi?

Further if athe comparison between the passport holder and the passport was the issue, wouldn't it have saved Aldi a lot of time and trouble as well as a public apology if they had said so?”

“Having just checked out a Polish passport, the headings (name, date of birth etc), are in English as well as Polish and what appears to be French (we have to humour them somehow), so I don't doubt that the members of staff in Aldi could not interpret it as a valid passport.

What is more likely in my opinion, is that the staff member had doubts that it was her passport. I have had my passport refused because I hadn't shaved and hadn't had a haircut (probably thought I was a hippy who had stolen it!!), but it was mine and it was genuine. Maybe she had longer hair, or had dyed it, or hadn't shaved either!

Whatever happened, the actual member of staff is the one liable for a fine of up to £5000, so if there is even the slighest doubt, they would do well to refuse the sale. I cannot imagine the average Aldi staff worker has five grand just kicking about to throw away, so I expect this is what they have done.

Polish Passport: http://tinyurl.com/ads87vs”

“Just to clarify, how old was the passport? How clear was the picture?
I've seen passports where the picture looks nothing like the holder so how do ya' like them apples?”

“Just wanted to confirm this statement: "A spokesman for Aldi said: "The sale of alcohol was refused because the store staff were unable to confidently verify the shopper's age.". So shop assistants declare that an EU passport cannot confidntly verify the identity of an individual but International Custom & Excise will accept this as verification? Sounds like there is something amiss along the line”

“Actually glosjools, they are not paid the minimum wage, they were advertising instore recently, for store assistants for a pretty good hourly pay, a lot higher than the minimum wage. But I take your point, and I agree if they are not sure, then they should take the safe option as it will be they that carry the can. But it did say she was refused by bosses. The only thing I would say, is that they should know what is acceptable and what isn't for ID, and who knows, they may just be right.”

“It wouldn't be ALDI that were guilty of an offence if they had failed to check the ID - it would be the person on the till. Faced with that threat over your head Ican fully understand why they would query it - getting paid the minimum wage really doesn't cover the risk!”

“It's beginning to look a lot like crass, Miss.”

“Refusing this girls passport as ID surprises me, as the Aldi in Quedgeley employs several Polish members of staff. They surely would have Polish passports, that they would have had to present when applying for a job there.”