A HAMPSHIRE off-licence has been banned from serving booze after staff sold alcohol to teenagers as young as 15.

Best One in Totton will have its licence taken away temporarily by police due to “repeated failures”, after underage drinkers were served on two occasions.

On the first occasion, a 17-year-old boy was stopped by a police officer near the store in Rumbridge Street and was found to have been sold a bottle of whiskey by a shop assistant at the store without being challenged.

Licensing officers visited the store and warned staff, while providing information and advice.

Daily Echo:

But in a police test purchase operation on November 27, two teenagers aged 16 and 15 were able to buy booze from the shop.

After the second failure the police have now taken the step to ban the shop from selling alcohol between 6am on December 26 and 11.30pm on December 29.

The shop assistant who sold the alcohol to the youngsters in the test purchase operation has been issued with a £90 fixed penalty notice.

Licencee Manish Parmar told the Echo today: “The first man who came in was 6ft tall with a beard and looked well over 18. It wasn’t a test purchase but he was known to the police, who stopped him as soon as he left the shop and confiscated his alcohol.

“The second incident was a test purchase. The person who served him did not ask for ID and was subsequently dismissed.

“Up until then I had never had a problem.”

Inspector Justin Roberts of Hampshire Constabulary's Western Community Safety and Licensing Team said: “It was disappointing that this shop failed our test purchase operation. All off-licences should be checking ages of people if they are not obviously over 18 and asking for proof.

"We recommend they actually extend this to anyone who looks under 25.

“We will be speaking with the owners of the shops who failed and making recommendations to them about such things as staff training to make sure the don't fail again. Shops that continually do fail are likely to have their licence taken away.

“We will be running similar operations in the future to make sure stores abide by the law which is there to help protect young people from the potential dangers of alcohol as part of a drive to combat alcohol-related anti-social behaviour.

“We want to help ensure local people using these facilities can enjoy socialising in a safe environment. We are also keen to reduce under-age drinking which can often lead to alcohol-fuelled anti-social behaviour which disrupts the lives of many people in the communities of Totton.

“If you have any concerns about anti-social behaviour or are aware of any licensed premises selling alcohol to people under the age of 18, you can contact your local safer neighbourhoods team on 101.”