Under 18s in Pub Curfew

[Waugh-terfall]

Ok, so, I was out with my girlfriend and some college friends in the local Wetherspoons pub. My Girlfriend and I are the last 2 in the group to turn 18 (Me May 5th, her May 17th) everyone else is drinking Bulmers & Magners, whilst we have j20s, we both get up to leave at 11.15 when we see a policeman walking towards us, he says to our table 'I'll be checking IDs in a second' and goes to check the table next to us, so I say to Emma 'We'd better sit down then, even though we've not been drinking, it'll look suspicious if we leave now' He checks IDs of everone else and we both hold up our j20 bottles and say 'we're 17'
He then says, 'Under 18s have to be out by a certain time and I'm going to have to ask you to leave'
We get up and say 'Ok, sorry, we weren't aware, we were just leaving anyway but we say you come to check...' when he says 'Out' and escorts us from the premises.

Does anybody have any idea what this 'curfew' might be?

Thanks in advance!

[Ganglandboss]

I may be wrong but the way I understood it was that by law a 16 - 18 year old can legally enter a pub without an adult provided they are not drinking alcohol. However, if the pub has a policy of no under 18s, you must obey it.

[rfn]

I believe it is to do with the operators license. I believe there may be a blanket rule of after 9pm no 18 year olds, regardless of whether you are drinking alcohol or not.

[AB]

Quite often you will get ID'd going into the pub, especially on a Friday or Saturday and especially in a scum riddled Wetherspoons.