Independent retailers have given a unanimous thumbs up to the proposed "entitlement card" saying the sooner a consistent national ID scheme is introduced the better. Ian Hunt, who owns the Filco Foods c-store chain in Wales, said the card would ease the burden on retailers in judging whether young shoppers were old enough to buy age restricted products. He said: "We are in favour of a proof of age card. The sooner it is introduced the better. We were caught out three or four years ago by a Camelot test purchase of a Lottery ticket by someone under 16, and lost one of our terminals for six months. That cost us thousands in lost Lottery sales and completely disrupted trade." And Londis retailer Arjan Mehr from Bracknell said: "I can't see any problem with ID cards. People are a bit paranoid about Big Brother. The government has all the information anyway, it's just not co-ordinated. From a business perspective the advantages are obvious, there are so many different ID cards at the moment, no-one is familiar with them all. It's a lot simpler to have one forge-proof card." Hamish Stewart, who owns R&J Brownlie store in Biggar, Lanarkshire, agreed current proof of age cards were not doing the job. He said: "I think a national ID card is vital. At the moment there is no consistent proof of age system, and that is a big problem with test purchasing which is about to start in Scotland. "I have never seen the Scottish ID card ­ the Young Scot card ­ and it only applies to over-18s. We very seldom see other proof of age cards, people tend to use driving licences or passports." Dennis Lawrence, who runs two Spar stores in mid-Wales, said public awareness of current cards is too low. He said: "I think a national scheme is an extremely good idea, people don't take up proof of age cards enough at the moment. It will be a great benefit to shopkeepers and post offices, whatever the civil liberties people say. "At the moment the government gives no help to retailers who must decide who to sell age restricted products to. It just persecutes those who fall foul of test-purchasing." {{NEWS }}