A HAMPSHIRE supermarket has been banned from selling alcohol for 48 hours after repeatedly selling to underage people.

The Sainsbury's store in Farlington, Portsmouth was served with an alcohol closure notice that will come into effect at 7am on Friday.

The store will remain open but it will not be allowed to sell any alcoholic drinks.

The notice was served after staff at the store sold alcohol to young people under the age 18 three times during test purchase operations between January and March this year.

Sainsbury’s accepted the 48 hour alcohol closure instead of the option of going to court.

Sergeant Wendie Douglas, said: “Officers have carried out a number of test purchase operations at Sainsbury’s since March and on each occasion staff have refused to sell alcohol to the young people which shows they are taking their responsibilities seriously.

"Sainsbury’s have taken the failures very seriously and will continue to work with us in training their staff and refusing to sell alcohol to young people.”

Principal Trading Standards Officer, Neil Fitzpatrick, said: “After the disappointing initial results, we are pleased that subsequent re-tests have resulted in Sainsbury staff refusing to serve alcohol to persons under the age of 18.

"This clearly demonstrates that there is significant room for improvement even in large supermarkets."