UK Fake driving licence with hologram

To help you adhere to this law it’s always a good idea to ask anyone who you think may be under-age for identification. By asking people to prove their age you will avoid accidentally selling alcohol to a minor and avoid facing the penalties for doing so.

You may already be familiar with the Challenge 25 scheme which looks to help you with this – the scheme simply informs the customer that if they’re lucky enough to look under 25, then you will ask them for proof of age before approving the sale.

Yet this still presents us with a further problem: how do you know if the ID you are given is real? It’s against the law for a child to use a fake or borrowed ID to buy alcohol but this doesn’t mean that they won’t try.

Fake ID cards can easily be obtained online or borrowed from older friends and siblings and so they commonly make their way into our bars, pubs, shops and supermarkets. So what can be done about it?

Acceptable Forms of ID

When you ask a customer for identification there are only three acceptable proofs of age that you should accept:

• A valid passport
• A photo driving licence.
• A Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) card.

Each form of ID must contain a photograph of the person, their date of birth and an official hologram.

It’s essential that you check these things very carefully to ensure that the photo is of the right person and to make sure that it's real, not fake. It’s more commonplace than you think for young people to borrow an ID card off an older friend or sibling to try and buy alcohol.

Unacceptable Forms of ID

Aside from passports, driving licences and PASS cards as stated above, all other forms of ID should not be accepted as proof of age. This includes items such as:

• Student cards.
• Birth certificates.
• Library cards.
• Bus/train passes.
• Credit/debit cards.

If a customer tries to give you any of these as their proof of age then you should not approve the sale until a valid form of ID can be presented. You may wish to explain the law to the customer, plus the fines you may face, if they act up to your request.

Types of Fake ID

• A genuine document which is being used by someone else, e.g. a child using their older sibling’s passport.
• A genuine document which has been altered, e.g. a driving licence with the date of birth scratched off.
• A genuine document which has been fraudulently obtained, e.g. a real passport that has been stolen and used by somebody else.
• A fake document which is a form of ID that does not exist, e.g. a provisional motorcycle licence.

The most common fake ID includes those that look like driving licences, such as national identification cards, European or international driving permits and provisional motorcycle licences.

How to Spot a Fake ID Card

Valid driving licences and PASS cards are the only type of ID card that can be accepted as proof of age.

PASS Cards

These must have:

• A hologram that is stuck on top of the plastic, rather than being smooth.
• An artificial looking hologram in appearance.
• A photograph that is stuck on top of the plastic.
• A photograph that doesn’t match the person presenting the ID.
• An incorrect date of birth.
• Details that have been altered or tampered with.
• A non-smooth surface.

Driving Licences

Driving licences are designed to be difficult to forge and possess many features that are hard to copy. They must have:

• A first name, surname, date and place of birth.
• A date of licence issue, photo expiry and issuing authority.
• A driver number.
• A valid photograph (black and white on newer photocards).
• The holder’s signature.
• The holder’s address.
• Entitlement categories.
• A hologram of a steering wheel over the person’s photograph which ‘turns’ as you move the card.
• Further holographic images on the front.
• Pictograms on the reverse.
• A green/gold steering wheel image on the reverse.
• Information codes.
• A complex background pattern.

A fake driving license may feature:

• An incorrect flag image.
• The wrong words across the top, e.g. ‘National Identification’ or ‘International Driving Permit’.
• Different languages.
• A plain or simple-patterned background.
• A photograph in the wrong place.
• No signature/an incorrect signature.
• Fake holograms.
• Information in the wrong places.