Fingerprint scanner at bar is met with suspicion (From Surrey Comet)

Fingerprint scanner at exclusive Weybridge bar is met with suspicion

8:30am Thursday 13th October 2011 in Elmbridge By Louise Robertson

A new fingerprint scanner at an exclusive Weybridge bar has been met with suspicion by some customers.

The technology at Noir Bar is the first in Elmbridge and is in addition to Clubscan, which scans and stores ID on entry to alert licensees about underage drinkers or banned customers in pubs and clubs.

The bar, formerly Abaya, voluntarily installed the scanner, which started working two weeks ago.

Simon Bate, licensing enforcement officer at Surrey Police, said: “If that is their condition of entry, then those are their house rules. You don’t have to go in.

“The bigger picture is you’ve got young people trying to get in this will discourage them because it takes fingerprints, and checks ID.

“It will help keep out the underage and the undesirables.”

But, not everybody supported the introduction of the new technology.

Paul Hopkinson, 32, a regular at Noir Bar, was asked to provide a fingerprint a fortnight ago and refused.

Staff also took photographs of people on entry.

He said: “I was quite angry at the fact that without committing a crime, I was asked to give incredibly personal information like that.

“I don’t even have to give my fingerprints when I leave the country. It worried me about why such a night club, in such an affluent area, would have to go to such extremes for people to gain entry.

“I was in fear about what might have previously happened there for them to go to such extremes to be honest. It was like going through customs.”

Mr Hopkinson said doormen told him it was not compulsory, but would speed up entry.

Guy Herbert, the general secretary of campaign group NO2ID, said he would never enter any bar that stored personal details from his passport or required a finger print.

He said: “Giving the fingerprint itself is not a problem, it’s the other personal details – who was there and when – that is very undesirable.

“All this information should not be kept unless it is secure, and if police want to access it, they should have to get a warrant.”