TWO Bargain Booze off-licences were caught selling alcohol to underage customers as part of a police operation.

The stores in Middleport and Trent Vale were subject to licence reviews yesterday after a police sting to catch retailers red-handed.

Both have now been told to improve and warned if they breach their licences again, then they could be revoked.

Shop assistants in both stores told police they had received training about the law surrounding underage sales but they had no explanation for their failure to implement the rules.

At the store in London Road, Trent Vale, neighbourhood police carried out a test purchase in November and a 17-year-old girl bought a bottle of wine.

The sales assistant had worked in the store for four years, but did not ask the girl for ID.

Councillors heard the assistant in the Middleport store, in Newcastle Street, was the daughter of the owner.

She sold a 16-year-old two bottles of WKD. She told police she thought the customer was 17 despite knowing the legal age for buying alcohol is 18.

On that evening the same teenage volunteer took part in test purchases in 20 other premises and was refused alcohol in all of them.

Police criticised the 'poor regime of management' where the daughter of the owner was left to serve on her own with no evidence of any training.

Sergeant David Wright, of Staffordshire Police, said: "In my area of Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle and the Staffordshire Moorlands, 42 per cent of the Bargain Booze outlets have failed a test purchase.

"That is significantly higher than any other chain we have.

"If these shops fail again we will bring them back before the committee. The sales assistant at the Trent Vale shop clearly did not grasp the concept of challenge 25. She said she thought the girl looked 20.

"It's not the first incident like this at the venue. In 2006 a sales assistant was prosecuted for making an underage sale.

"We wanted to retest it to see if standards had slipped again.

"Underage sales are a serious matter."

Conditions added to the licences at both shops include keeping a refusals book, holding regular staff training, which is formally recorded, adopting a Challenge 25 scheme and keeping CCTV footage for 31 days.

Paul Sherratt, a spokesman for Bargain Booze, said both shops are family-run businesses with experienced licence holders.

Speaking about the Trent Vale shop he said: "This sale was a genuine mistake not an example of flouting the law.

"The lady who made the sale is mortified and has handed in her notice.

"She is experienced, having previously worked in the pub trade and this demonstrates mistakes can be made.

"The book should not be thrown at retailers, they should be given an opportunity to improve.

"This standardised approach seems to mean one failure means a new list of conditions on the licence, it's a blanket policy, one size fits all."

Chairman of the licensing sub-committee, Joy Garner said: "We have permanently modified the conditions on the licences to include those agreed. Any further appearance before this committee could lead to a revocation of the licence."

Update: An article in yesterday's Sentinel reported a license review of a Bargain Booze store, in London Road, Trent Vale. The shop is actually in London Road, Oakhill.