POLICE are cracking down on East Yorkshire pubs and off licences serving alcohol to under-age drinkers.

Humberside Police regularly carry out under-age test purchasing operations in pubs, off-licences and restaurants across East Yorkshire in a bid to ensure all licensed premises adhere to the licensing laws.

In October, an off-licence in Driffield, another in Hornsea, and a pub and a restaurant in Beverley all sold alcohol to 14-year-old girls and boys who were part of a police operation to try and buy alcohol, with the permission of their parents.

The same four businesses were all revisited using another set of 14-year-olds last Friday and did not sell to any of the children.

Licensing officer PC Carolyn Grundy said: “I am very pleased to say that we have never had to suspend or close a licensed premise following a test purchase operation.

“Every East Riding licensed premises which has been visited under the operation and sold to children the first time, when revisited have never sold to our children. This is due to the fact that when a pub, restaurant or off-licence sells to one of our children; we give feedback to the owner of the licensed premises straight away and work with the company to ensure this does not happen again.”

When someone is caught serving alcohol to a child during an operation a police officer will then take the alcohol and give them a fixed penalty ticket of £80.