McDonald's Refuse To Serve Girl, 9, For Being Underage

A nine-year-old girl was left distraught when staff at McDonald's refused to serve her because she was underage.

Schoolgirl Lilly Bullen went into the fast food restaurant's branch in Bradshawgate, Leigh, to collect an order her mum had placed and paid for using the McDonald's app.

But when it came to picking the order up, a member of staff told Lilly that under 16s were not allowed to be served after 5pm leaving her close to tears, according to her mum, Claire Bullen.

Facebook/Claire Bullen

It's been reported that the rule was put in place to support a public dispersal order made by the police following a recent spate of trouble in the area.

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Claire said: "I was gutted for her as I had to sweet talk her to go in for it in the first place, as she gets ever so shy. She came out nearly crying as she thought she'd done wrong.

"She's not exactly rocked up and asked for a double vodka to go with her double cheeseburger has she."

Claire escorted Lilly back into the branch on Tuesday evening (7 January) where the pair were handed their food.

"I went in with her to challenge the lady and her reply was a rather rude 'nope she's underage we don't serve under 16 anymore'," she claimed.

"I explained we had already ordered and paid and she was purely collecting. She reverted to allowing her after I'd challenged their replies.

"We later found out it's because of other older kids causing so much trouble. It always ruins it for the younger kids. I'd seen posts about the kids causing trouble, but I had no idea of the refusal of service after certain hours."

Facebook/Claire Bullen

According to McDonald's, the dispersal order was introduced by Greater Manchester Police. While it's being enforced under 16s are required to be accompanied by an adult after 5pm.

A McDonald's spokesperson told the MEN: "This customer was initially refused service due to temporary measures introduced to support a dispersal order in Leigh town centre. After confirming that her guardian was waiting outside the restaurant, the customer collected their order as normal."

Topics: UK News, News, mcdonalds, UK

Rebecca Shepherd

I'm Becky - a journalist at LADbible. I graduated with a First Class BA in Journalism before going on to cover criminal court cases, medical tribunals and breaking news for the national media - which inevitably and eventually became as glum as it sounds. Can often be found rocking a bag for life - which I made a 'thing' way before Rihanna. You can contact me at [email protected]

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