A “trading standards” operation in Ireland used ‘Pretend’ drunks to catch out Conwy and Denbighshire pubs serving alcohol illegally.

Roly Schwarz, community safety enforcement manager for both authority areas, said they used three professional witnesses to act out the drunken display as all the tradings standards officers are so well known in the area.

Sounds like a case of “everyone act normal, the auditors are here.”

He said: “On one of the occasions we actually dressed one of them as Frank Gallagher, the very dishevelled main character in the series Shameless and had him trying to buy a drink in character with change and smelling of drink and he was still served.

“We also had them knocking over furniture, falling over, telling staff they had been drinking all day and walking in and out of places.

“We were very surprised by the findings as we went along and decided to up the anti, with them acting more and more drunk and always making sure they told anyone who listened they had been drinking all day.”

I can only imagine what “up the anti” looked like on Facebook the next day.

About 45% (11 of 25) failed to stop serving. The trading standards officer suggests to the BBC that stopping the practice of selling to drunks will help reduce other crimes.