Worcester County licensing board members issued fines to several local businesses this month for selling alcohol to minors.
The Worcester County Government Center in Snow Hill is pictured.
File photo
By Bethany Hooper, Associate Editor
Licensing officials issued fines to several local businesses this month for selling alcohol to minors.
During a series of hearings Aug. 21, the Worcester County Board of License Commissioners (BLC) handed down a letter of reprimand to the West Ocean City Royal Farms and issued a total of $8,250 in fines to eight other establishments for alcohol sales to minors. The first violation reviewed this week occurred at Asian Cuisine, which received a $1,000 fine for failing a compliance check.
“We are stipulating the offense occurred, and we only wish to be heard on mitigation,” Mark Cropper, Asian Cuisine’s attorney, told the board.
Cropper said the offense was the first recorded for the Ocean Pines-based business. Connections for the restaurant said an employee had sold an underage police cadet alcohol without checking identification.
When asked to provide an account of what had transpired, the employee said he had waited on a table that had what he believed to be a young child and an older woman. He said he mistakenly believed the woman to be over the age of 21. Sheriff’s Office Deputy Mark Shayne, however, disputed the claim.
“There was no young child at the table,” he told the board. “There was an 18-year-old at the table.”
Employee Shirley Yeung, daughter of the license holder, said the employee had worked for the business 10 years and was Techniques of Alcohol Management (TAM) certified. When asked how the employee responded to the infraction, Shayne replied, “It was difficult to communicate for this incident.”
BLC member Charles Nichols questioned how the employee had completed his TAM training.
Yeung said the employee had a better understanding of written English and that the restaurant’s employees had completed a written exam. When asked if such an exam was bonafide, TAM instructor Lois Twilley said classes often varied by instructor.
“It’s left to the comptroller’s office to approve whatever classes,” she said.
After further discussion, the board issued a $1,000 fine to Asian Cuisine.
The BLC this week also issued a letter of reprimand to the West Ocean City Royal Farms, which recorded its first alcohol sales violation in 10 years, and levied a $250 fine to Newark Station. The store’s connections acknowledged the employee who had committed the infraction had been working for the store for less than a year and had no prior violations.
“This is a wakeup call,” the store’s attorney told the board. “It was a clean deal, and we’re sorry for it.”
The BLC on Wednesday also fined the Duck In, located in Pocomoke, $500 for its alcohol violation, and Pizza Tugo’s, located in West Ocean City, $1,000. In the Pizza Tugo’s case, the server told the board she had checked the underage cadet’s identification but had mistakenly believed her to be over the age of 21.
“She asked for a beer, I carded her, and I did my math wrong …,” she said. “It’s 100 percent on me.”
Other violations included the Newtown Market in Pocomoke, which received a $500 fine, the Super Soda in Snow Hill, which received a $1,500 fine, and Berlin Liquor, which received a $1,500 fine. At the Berlin Liquor, connections acknowledged that the employee had failed to scan the underage cadet’s identification.
“You had a system in place, and it wasn’t used,” said BLC member Marty Pusey.
Lastly, the BLC issued a $2,000 fine to Marlin Market, located off Stephen Decatur Highway. The recent violation marks the third infraction recorded since 2019, but the license holder said changes have been made to the store’s point of sale system.
“Immediately after that violation we took away the capability of cashiers to manually punch a date in …,” he explained. “The only way to make a sale is to scan the ID.”
The license holder also acknowledged the employee who had committed the violation had been terminated. “He claimed he made a mistake,” he said of the employee’s actions. “It’s an oversight he’s very regretful of.”