Age Verification Audits

Tackle underage sales putting retailers at risk

Serve Legal enables many retailers across Europe to improve their age check compliance by performing specialist 'mystery shop test purchase' audits, also providing Trading Standards-approved guidance, unique benchmarking and expert advice.

Market leaders in age verification test purchasing across the UK & Ireland

Database of 1000s of 18-19 year old Auditors

Whole-estate auditing delivered within weeks, not months

Live dashboards and sector benchmarking to track performance and target training

How Serve Legal can help you

The Risk

Underage sales of age restricted products can lead to prosecution, fines, risk of losing your trading license, staff issues and damage to your brand reputation. Trading Standards are constantly perfomring unnannounced inspections to check that retailers are complying with the law and will apply formal sanctions where there is a breach.

How Serve Legal Help?

We use our unique, highly engaged national community of 18/19 year olds to help companies test the robustness of their 'Think-25' policy.

Our audits enable responsible retailers to demonstrate to both local authorities and their customers, that they take underage sales seriously, prove due diligence and proactivity, as well as increasing management focus on legislation and internal compliance policies, which improves staff performance.

Clients can monitor their overall performance to identify risk factors via a bespoke live dashboard and access unique benchmarking data to compare their performance with the average for their sector.

Learn More about our Data and Analytics Offering

Data and Analytics Reporting

We don’t just run audits, we turn them into live, actionable intelligence. Our investment in data, software and automation goes far beyond industry norms, giving our clients faster insight, lower reporting costs, and a genuine competitive edge. Take a look at our reporting ecosystem, combining interactive Power BI dashboards, AI-powered data assurance and a developer-friendly REST API, helping you take control of compliance performance across your organisation.

Learn More about our Data and Analytics Offering

Our success stories

“We use Serve Legal regularly to carry out tests on our compliance with age restricted sales. This includes tobacco and the recently introduced tobacco display ban. They deliver a reliable and efficient service within agreed deadlines and with very few data errors. They are able to swiftly provide accurate analysis of our data which helps with our training and future testing programs.”

“We have worked with Serve Legal since 2014 and they have significantly helped us to combat illegal broadcasting in the UK and Ireland. Their knowledge, expertise and robust auditing in conjunction with the prompt supply of infringement data has generated over 8,000 leads; which has led to valuable leads for our sales force and investigation team to defend our investment in exclusive sports content. Serve Legal have consistently delivered against agreed KPIs.”

“We have worked with Serve Legal since 2009 and they have helped us to significantly reduce our risk with age-restricted sales. They have played a key role in monitoring our risk across a range of age-restricted products. Their knowledge, speed of service and flexible data provision helps us to sharpen our training and inform our future approach to compliance.”

“The Serve Legal information is extremely useful, informative and well presented. The issues with sites not using ‘Challenge 25’ can now be dealt with the backing of evidence of where they’re failing. I am most pleased with how the surveys are being conducted and appreciate the detailed information provided.”

“Using an independent test purchase service such as Serve Legal demonstrates to the local authorities that I am taking the issue of underage sales seriously. The due diligence provided is invaluable and has played an important role in defending my license in a recent licensing hearing.”

“We have worked with Serve Legal since 2008. The visit reports are always delivered in an accurate and timely manner. The accuracy and consistency of the information provided has allowed us to identify training needs, target resource, protect our business and improve our compliance. I would have no hesitation in recommending Serve Legal to others.”

“We use Serve Legal monthly to conduct test purchases of alcohol, in order to monitor our adherence to our Challenge 25 policy. This is also extended to campaigns of test purchasing on other age-restricted products. The professionalism and flexibility they offer has assisted us in improving our compliance levels, and where required, using targeted activity. The online portal provides easy to read data in a timely fashion for reporting.”

“We have worked with Serve Legal since 2009 and they have helped us to significantly reduce our risk with age restricted sales. They have played a key role in monitoring our risk across a wide range of age restricted products. Their knowledge, speed of service and flexible data provision helps us to sharpen our training and inform our future approach to compliance.”

“Serve Legal was appointed by my company in order that we gain valued feedback from a licensing perspective. The relationship between Serve legal and my business is friendly, professional and feels personal. The feedback we have gained is invaluable to our operation, we have been able to use the data to make changes in our business to ensure a risk free operation. I would highly recommend.”

Frequently asked questions

Is this legal? Are you trying to get staff “caught out”?

All of our test purchases are legal and fair. We ensure that our auditors are over the legal age of purchase, so the test stresses your policy without breaking the law. The goal is to help you prevent failure in an official Trading Standards test purchase and learn from mistakes.

What happens if we “fail” an audit?

There are no official consequences from our visit as it is only a stress test, however we strongly encourage clients to take this data seriously and use it to make change happen. Many client use audit data for internal coaching or HR processes. A Trading Standards failure, by contrast, can lead to fines, prosecution, or licensing action. Use our stress tests to fix gaps in compliance before you face legal consequences.

How quickly do we get results?

The auditor completes the report on the same day as the visit. It is then checked by our team and sent within 48 hours to your named contacts.

Can you cover our whole estate?

Yes—Serve Legal operates nationwide across the UK & Ireland and can audit entire estates within weeks (including hard-to-reach locations).

Can we add extra checks to the same visit?

Yes — you can add “bolt-on” checks (e.g., promotional compliance, retail compliance, customer experience, venue safety) without setting up a separate programme.

About us

In early 2006, Ed Heaver and Julian Sargeson were alcohol retailers with a problem. The local authority had decided one of their sites was consistently serving underage people.

Wave after wave of local authority 'stings' resulted in them losing a licence. A conservative estimate put their loss of sales at £25,000 per week.

Unfortunately, Ed and Julian had no way of fighting back. They wanted to check their staff, measure the site performance and demonstrate to the authority they were taking the issue seriously. They couldn't find a company providing a cost-effective service, so they decided to do it themselves.