Dad 'would still be here' without booze deliveries

Two sisters have said their alcoholic father could still be alive had he not been allowed to repeatedly order booze on delivery apps.

Glenn Perkins, from Kent, died in January aged 55 after long term alcohol-related problems, according to his twin daughters.

Connie Perkins said that Uber Eats told her in 2022 that she could not prevent her father from ordering alcohol on their platform as she was not the account holder.

Uber Eats says couriers are required to "confirm the recipient's age and conduct a sobriety check before an order can be completed".

Glenn Perkins's delivery apps order history showed he would place orders as often as every 90 minutes, according to Connie Perkins.

"He was constantly ordering throughout the day, from 6am when he could," she said.

"How on Earth can someone order multiple times a day as much alcohol as they want? It's actually crazy."

Her sister Daisy Perkins said: "He didn't shave, he didn't shower, he didn't need to leave the house.

"It was so easy to just tap your phone, order to your door."

Connie Perkins said she had emailed Uber Eats to warn "something serious was going to happen".

"They said I couldn't do anything because I wasn't the account holder," she said.

She explained her father was unlikely to contact the app himself as "he was an alcoholic, he didn't want the alcohol to stop being delivered to his front door".

"They should have looked at his address, they should have seen how much he was ordering and flagged the address up, but they did nothing," she told the BBC.

"He would still be here if it wasn't for the apps," she said. "We knew he was always going to die from alcohol-related problems, but not at 55."

• If you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, you can seek help and support through the BBC Action Line.

Daisy Perkins told the BBC her father, who had been a firefighter for more than 20 years, "would always go to the hospital to withdrawal" after running out of money.

She said he would "literally leave the hospital, come home still in his hospital-ware, and straight on the phone and order" once he received more funds.

"He didn't enjoy it," she said. "He just needed that feeling."

The 30-year-old twins, from Rainham in Kent, are calling for limits on how much alcohol can be ordered, restrictions on what time of day alcohol can be delivered, and tougher rules on delivering to people who are intoxicated.

Uber Eats says it has "an ongoing partnership with an alcohol education charity to implement further alcohol safety measures".

A spokesperson said this included signposting to support resources and the option to "restrict platform access for customers where necessary".

The company says it has processes for family members or suppliers to raise concerns and request that accounts be reviewed.

Gillingham and Rainham MP Naushabah Khan said delivery apps "check for age verification but really the responsibility stops there".

"There's clearly a gap in our law, which isn't addressing the way that people are now living their lives," she told the BBC.

Connie Perkins said she has heard from other families who have had a similar experiences to theirs, and "if we can help somebody else, then hopefully something good comes out of it".

Dr Richard Piper, the chief executive of Alcohol Change UK, said intoxication checks were "definitely not happening at the point of ordering, and they're not happening good quality enough at the point of delivery".

He is calling for hours-long delays on orders involving substantial quantities of alcohol and for family members to be able to intervene on behalf of loved ones.

"We'd love these companies to step up and be the great corporate citizens that we hope they could be," he said.

"But if they can't be, then we need government to step in and mandate some proper, sensible, pragmatic and proportionate protections for people."

A Home Office spokesperson said: "Our thoughts are with the family of Mr Perkins and all those affected by his tragic death.

"We understand the concerns relating to rapid online alcohol delivery, which can lead to increased alcohol harm.

"We are looking into how licensing rules apply to these delivery services, and are working with experts to ensure safeguards are effective."

Follow BBC Kent on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.