Police have clamped down on the illegal sale of alcohol to children in Huddersfield.

And checks have revealed three off-licences in the town centre failed to check ID and are now to be fined.

Officers visited seven off-licences in Huddersfield town centre on Monday and used teenage volunteers to buy alcohol, which is called test-purchasing.

Three of the off-licences failed to ask the youngsters’ age and now face a £90 fine.

Sgt Mandy Mellor from Huddersfield Police said: “We carried out seven test purchases at off-licences in Huddersfield town centre. Surprisingly, three of them failed and sold alcohol to our test purchasers who were 13 and 14 year-old girls.

“We will now work with the premises to ensure they are compliant in future and will carry out further checks in the next three months.

Sgt. Mandy Mellor of West Yorkshire Police.

“If they continue to fail the test purchases we will have no choice but to refer to a licensing hearing to have their sale of alcohol licence revoked.”

The off-licences have not been disclosed to the Examiner to allow police to continue to work with them.

The Licensing Act 2003 sets out the offences, defences and penalties that relate to under age sales of alcohol.

The maximum penalty for a person found guilty of sale of alcohol to children is a fine of up to £5,000.