A female bartender was charged and eight others sanctioned after the St Andrew Central Police, in a bid to clamp down on spirit licence violators, raided sections of the division yesterday.

Head of the Half-Way-Tree Police Station Superintendent Derrick Cowboy Knight, said the bartender was charged with illegally exposing alcohol for sale, and that she, as well as the others, are to go before the court tomorrow.

Ten boxes of alcohol were also seized during the operation, he said.

This is an offence under the spirit licence act where persons have been operating, some of them for years, without the appropriate licence, said Knight.

The superintendent said the raid started about 4:00 pm, and targeted bars and other distribution outlets on Molynes Road, and on Waltham Park and Dumbarton avenues.

He said it was the first of a series of assaults on violators of the spirit licence and noise abatement acts.

About a month ago we had an education seminar and we outlined the requirements of the spirit licence and the noise abatement act, Knight said. We told them what they needed to do, and that we are going to be enforcing these laws."

Yesterday was the first operation, he said.