02 September 2025, 6:45 PM
Guyon Espiner, Investigative reporter, In DepthThe parents of a 16-year-old boy who died drunk-driving are pleading with the government to strengthen liquor laws, after learning he was served alcohol multiple times that night, including when visibly drunk.Silas Sims, a popular student and keen rugby player at Mahurangi College in Warkworth, smashed his car into a concrete pole in the early evening of 19 July this year.His parents, Ben and Sarah, are appealing personally to Nicole McKee, the minister in charge of alcohol laws, in the hope of preventing others experiencing the tragedy they are living through.McKee said the circumstances of Silas' death were tragic, but the focus should be on strictly enforcing existing laws.Silas' death rocked the small Warkworth community, with 800 people attending his funeral and hundreds more watching online.As they pieced together the circumstances of their son's death, Sarah and Ben said they were shocked at how weak the laws were to prevent sales to minors.Silas Sims' parents Sarah and Ben want harsher fines for outlets that serve minors. Photo: Nick MonroSilas and the two friends he was out with were all under the legal purchase age of 18 but were served at least eight times between them, including when highly intoxicated.His parents have seen CCTV footage, taken about 10 minutes after Silas was last served, that clearly shows he was drunk."It was three boys who just, for some reason, decided to have an adventure and were trying it on," Sarah said.None of the staff who served the boys asked for ID before selling them alcohol, including RTDs and a 700ml bottle of Jägermeister."The boys get on it. They sculled some Jägermeister, get in their cars, go to this pub, get asked if they're 18, they say 'yes' - which I guess you would if you were 16," Sarah said, recounting her son's last few hours.The friends went to another bottle store and were sold RTDs, and then to a pub, where they were served despite being obviously intoxicated."We have seen the CCTV from five minutes later, five minutes before he died, and he's all over the shop," Sarah said."He's swaying and stumbling, and at this point, his mate is trying to take the keys off him, but his mate's drunk, you know? Silas would have just thought it was a game and he drove off," she said."Five minutes later, he hit a concrete post, and his mates were just behind him, and they couldn't find him. I mean, they turned up, and I guess he was gone in a second."Ben said his son knew about the dangers of driving drunk, he said. Their conversations included getting Silas to think about what he would say to a friend's mum if he was responsible for her son's death in a drink-driving accident.Police are investigating Silas' death.In the meantime, Ben said they were bewildered that the businesses that served their son still have liquor licences, despite the law allowing for immediate suspensions and fines."We keep on driving past the venues and keep on seeing them open," he said. "The law says immediate, but it turns out it's immediate when it actually gets to the courts." A process that could take months.Photo: SuppliedThey believe there were up to 11 breaches of the liquor law in serving the three boys that evening, and want harsher fines for selling to minors.Under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act, staff who sell to minors can be fined $2000 and the business up to $10,000 - compared with potential fines of up to $100,000 for a business selling vapes to a minor.But data shows those fines are rarely used.Communities Against Alcohol Harm studied sting operations - called controlled purchase operations - carried out by police and councils between 2022 and 2025.The organisation's report found that in the 75 breaches identified during stings, where alcohol was sold to minors, a fine was never applied.In 59 of those cases, the main penalty was a 48-hour suspension of the liquor licence. Often the manager's certificate was also suspended for a month.Auckland Council figures, released to the couple under the Official Information Act, show that of nearly 1100 off-licences in Auckland, mainly bottle stores and supermarkets, 146 were subjected to controlled purchase operations in 2024.And of nearly 3000 on-licences in Auckland, just 10 were subject to controlled purchase operations in the same timeframe.Sarah and Ben discovered just 10 out of nearly 3000 on-licences in Auckland were subject to a liquor law sting operation in 2024. Photo: Nick MonroIn Ben and Sarah's area of Warkworth, just two bottle stores were subject to a sting operation in 2024, and no pubs.Ben said Silas bought alcohol using his own bank card, and he believed it would be an easy fix to make alcohol a restricted good and block bank cards so minors could not buy it.His local MP Chris Penk has asked the Commerce Minister to investigate the idea.Sarah made a direct appeal to ACT MP Nicole McKee, a keen hunter and gun enthusiast who, as Associate Justice Minister, is responsible for alcohol law."Nicole, you would have loved Silas," she said."He was just a lad. Just one of those boys that was a born hunter, just a born outdoors kid, and he's a real loss to New Zealand," she said."He would have been an awesome dad, awesome worker, and you have the ability, with just some little changes, to really improve this."McKee said her first response was as a parent."As a mother, to lose a child under such tragic circumstances - that rips at everybody's heart, and I just want to acknowledge the pain and suffering that they are going through."Rather than raising fines, the focus should be on making sure the existing laws and penalties were strictly followed, she said.Ministers could not tell police and the judiciary what to do, McKee said.But they could have discussions with them about how the existing laws were being applied and interpreted."It's also looking at how seriously as a country we do take alcohol harm," she said."We want to make sure that parents like Ben and Sarah are not suffering in the future, but unfortunately, it is going to happen when we have people not adhering to those rules and those laws."She had heard Ben and Sarah loud and clear and had a message of her own to liquor outlets selling to minors, she said."Absolutely do not do it. We have parents that are suffering. We have siblings that are suffering because they're trying to get a quick buck."The couple acknowledged their son ultimately made the decision to drink and drive and said they did not harbour resentment at the staff who served him."I can't imagine what it would be like to go to sleep knowing that you'd sold 700mls of Jägermeister to a 16-year-old who then died," Sarah said."It was our son who did it. But the point of the law here is that it's meant to protect, and I don't think the way the law is set up at the moment is doing that."This story was originally published by RNZ
