Police stepped up their efforts to identify underage clubbers in Paceville over the weekend, carrying out ID checks at nightclubs and bars “every few hours”.
“Usually we’re checked about once a month,” a Paceville bar owner told this newspaper. “On Saturday night alone we were checked twice, while some other bars in the area were checked four times.”
On Sunday night, the Times of Malta witnessed a team of police officers visiting bars door-to-door, asking patrons of all ages to show their ID cards. One nightclub DJ confirmed the checks were repeated a number of times throughout the evening.
Some establishments also appear to be increasing their own enforcement. Teenage clubbers who spoke to this newspaper said that, apart from the increased police presence, a number of bars known for their lax door policy all asked for IDs upon entrance this weekend.
Questions sent to the police on whether the increased checks would continue and whether they identified any offenders were unanswered by the time of going to print.
The collapse of an entrance stairway at PlusOne club earlier this month shone a new light on the frequency of clubs admitting underage patrons, after it emerged that 20 of the 74 young people injured were under 17 years of age.
Following the incident, the government pledged to review penalties for nightclub owners who do not enforce stricter door polices. Measures being discussed internally include significantly increased fines that could amount to “thousands of euros”.
The current penalty is €233 per underage patron found in a club, but just eight fines have been issued so far this year, compared with 33 in 2013, according to official figures. PlusOne director Carlo Schembri has welcomed the call for harsher fines, but called for the fines to be applied equally to offending establishments and the underage clubbers themselves.
Meanwhile, the health and safety concerns highlighted by the incident appear to have led to some people opting to stay away from Paceville altogether.
Nightclub sources reported a significantly slower weekend than usual at several establishments, with some expressing fears that the low numbers could persist until Christmas.