Woman barred from pubs in England and Wales

A woman has become the first person to be barred from all licensed premises in England and Wales under a drinking banning order.

West Mercia Police said the order against Laura Hall, 20, formerly from the Stoke Heath area of Bromsgrove, would last until April 2012 and prohibit her from consuming or purchasing alcohol in pubs.

Hall has also been banned from drinking in nightclubs, membership clubs or hotels, and from purchasing alcohol in shops and off-licences. She is barred from drinking in public under the order, which may be lifted after a year if she completes an alcohol misuse course and abides by its terms.

Police applied for the drinking banning order (DBO) after Hall was involved in numerous alcohol-related public order offences in the Bromsgrove area. She had already been excluded from local bars through the pub-watch scheme.

DBOs were introduced by the Home Office in September 2009 as a measure to prevent those causing alcohol-related disorder from entering specified licensed premises. Sergeant David Roberts, from Bromsgrove Police, said: "We hope she will use it as an opportunity to get her life back on track."