Licensing officials issued fines to several local businesses this week for selling alcohol to minors. During a series of hearings Wednesday, the Worcester County Board of License Commissioners handed down a letter of reprimand to the West Ocean City Royal Farms and issued a total of $8,250 in fines to eight other establishments for alcohol sales to minors. The first violation reviewed this week occurred at Asian Cuisine, which received a $1,000 fine for failing a compliance check.
“We are stipulating the offense occurred, and we only wish to be heard on mitigation,” Mark Cropper, Asian Cuisine’s attorney, told the board. Cropper said the offense was the first recorded for the Ocean Pines-based business. Connections for the restaurant said an employee had sold an underage police cadet alcohol without checking identification.
When asked to provide an account of what had transpired, the employee said he had waited on a table that had what he believed to be a young child and an older woman. He said he mistakenly believed the woman to be over the age of 21. Sheriff’s Office Deputy Mark Shayne, however, disputed the claim.
“There was no young child at the table,” he told the board. “There was an 18-year-old at the table.” Employee Shirley Yeung, daughter of the license holder, said the employee had worked for the business 10 years and was Techniques of Alcohol Management (TAM) certified.
When asked how the employee responded to the infraction, Shayne replied, “It .