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Smoker’ dinks lids could save their pints
By Mike Byrne Chief Reporter -Express & Echo - www.thisisexeter.co.uk
An Exeter women is out to stop smokers kicking up a fuss over their drinks being thrown away at bars across the city.
 Dawn Dines has stepped into the firing line between hard-pressed bar staff and irate but thirsty smokers.
According to Dawn, 38, since the smoking ban hit pubs many drinkers have been nipping out between quick ones for a slow drag outside.Unable to take their drinks with them – police have cracked down on the practice –they have to leave their unfinished pint or pina colada with umbrella on the bar – and that’s when the trouble starts.For when they come back they can find that the bar staff, assuming the customer has left, have poured away the remains of the drink and washed up the glass.Even drinkers who have been de-stressed by a recent dose of nicotine can get a bit exasperated and pubs end up giving them another drink to compensate for their sad loss
But now Dawn, from Heavitree, and a former social worker has come up with an answer – a spin off from her original anti drink spiking lids – designed to fit over the top of glasses.
The new lid has a Do Not Disturb message with a match stick man puffing on a cigarette and can be placed over glasses while the smoker is outside puffing.
Dawn whose company SOS also provides safe sex underwear complete with a pocket designed to hold a condom said, “ It seems to have become really popular and I am delivering to the Longbrook in Cowick Street, Harry’s bar in Mount Pleasant Road and probably to Zephyr’s in Queen Street.
“It’s the sort of thing that can cause upset and certainly leaves pubs losing out when people come back in to find their drink has been thrown out and then demand a new one.
Usually they say it was a nearly full pint – even if they were down to the last drop – and that means a new pint. It all means lost barrelage and that’s where my lid can save money and tempers.
Her anti spiking lids have already proved a hit across the city and Dawn has done promotions throughout the southwest and in Brighton and Yorkshire.
She supplied 10,000 lids to Brighton and Hove police and Dundee university has bought 5,000 lids to distribute to all its new students.
And Dawn has not rulled out the possibility of coming up with more ideas for Swanky or Spanky products. “A friend phoned me up and suggested I invent a see through bag, which you wouldn’t have to empty at airports, after the recent terrorist threats,” she said. “I will definitely be looking into that.”
For more information about SOS, visit the website www.swankyorspanky.co.uk
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