OFF-LICENCE bosses in York have been warned that a tough crackdown on sales to under-age youngsters will continue - and they risk having their licences revoked for repeat offences.

Trading Standards officers in the city have secured eight convictions and issued seven formal cautions since October, after young mystery shoppers helped catch out those willing to sell booze to under-18s.

The prosecutions followed 63 test purchases - where under-age volunteers go into premises to try to buy alcohol - during the past year, when 21 off-licences were caught illegally selling booze.

Police licensing officer PC Mike Welsh said it was "disappointing" that one in three off-licences tested had broken the law and urged licensees "to be more vigilant".

"Test purchasers will continue through this year," he warned. "If there is a blatant offence or repeat offences we will look to have their licence revoked."

Sergeant Mike Stubbs, of the York Community Policing Team, said the behaviour of youths congregating and drinking alcohol was "intimidating" and "a common cause of complaint".

"There is no doubt that alcohol is fuelling incidents of violence and damage among some young people, such as the incidents in the Scarcroft area last August which led to four youths - all under 18 - being imprisoned.

"Restrictions on the sale of alcohol to under-18s are necessary to protect young people and to prevent them becoming involved in this sort of behaviour. Most retailers recognise they have a responsibility to the wider community to ensure that their staff comply with the law.

"But a small minority are not living up to that responsibility - that creates many problems and, all too often, it is the police and local residents who are left to pick up the pieces."

Colin Rumford, head of trading standards at City of York Council, said the latest campaign had seen officers personally visiting York off-licences to remind staff of the risks. Workers were then asked to sign a record to say they had read a warning notice.

He said the campaign was proving a success. Off-licences which had previously offended were targeted in the run-up to Christmas with further test purchases - and only one made a sale.

Matt Boxall, principal trading standards officer, said: "We are getting tough. We have been prosecuting people for first time offences, thinking that people would take more care after seeing their peers dragged through the courts for not doing their job.

"That didn't seem to work very well, so we have decided to up it a level and go out and see everyone. With the results from before Christmas it looks like it has been a success."

KwikSave stores in Hull Road and Beagle Ridge Drive were among the premises where staff and licensees were prosecuted for selling alcohol to under-18s.

Spokesman Jamie Sitzia blamed "human error", explaining that stringent checks were in place surrounding the sale of alcohol, with comprehensive staff training.

"We have till-check prompts when alcohol is scanned, a refusal register to log when any customer is refused alcohol, we have also invested money in helping to establish Citizencard ID and there are signs throughout the store indicating that we will refuse the sale of alcohol to under-18s."

:: York Trading Standards officers secured nine convictions between October and this month of off-licences illegally selling booze to under-18s. These details include their positions at the time of the offences:

Lesley Hopper and Elizabeth Ann Stephenson, licensees of Kwik Save, in Hull Road, received a conditional discharge for allowing an under-age drink office. Neither were in the store when the boy bought lager, but both had to plead guilty because they were the licensees at the time.

At the Kwik Save, in Beagle Ridge Drive, Karen Shepherd, a cashier, was fined £250 for an under-age sale offence.

Graham Kennedy and Karen Peacock, the then joint licensees of Inner Space Station, Boroughbridge Road, were each fined £250 for alcohol sales to under-age buyers after a cashier sold a can of Budweiser to a 15-year-old.

Kelly Patterson, a cashier at Aldi, in Fulford Road, was fined £250, for selling booze to an under-18.

Christopher Duncan Read, a checkout worker at Jacksons Stores, Burton Stone Lane, was fined £75 for selling alcohol to an under-age buyer.

Nigel Jonathon White, cashier at The Spar, Heslington Road, was fined £150 for selling alcohol to an under-18.

Thomas Joseph Brooks was given an absolute discharge after selling a bottle of beer to a 15-year-old boy while working as a cashier at Wigginton Village Stores.

Another seven people received formal cautions for selling alcohol to under-age buyers.

Updated: 11:27 Wednesday, February 16, 2005