ALMOST a third of pubs and off-licences in one Huddersfield area failed police test buying ‘stings’.

The scheme, running for more than a year now, sees Kirklees’ police sending teenagers into problem areas and attempt to buy drink in a bid to expose rogue or careless licensees.

Now newly released 2007/08 figures have exposed the Huddersfield South ward, which includes Dalton, Almondbury, Newsome and Crosland Moor, as the worst area with a 31% failure rate.

Insp David Glover from the Huddersfield South Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “The last failure in Huddersfield South was at the end of December, there have been no failures this year at all.

“We’ve taken the licence from three premises, the off-licences are starting to get the message big style because they lose their livelihood. We’re now going to focus on pubs and clubs.”

The ‘three strikes and you’re out’ system requires a licensee to fail three test purchases before their licence is revoked.

The first failure results in an £80 fixed penalty notice and a second would prompt a trip to Huddersfield Magistrates Court with a larger fine the likely outcome.

One licensee has already been fined £440 and two others are due to attend court.

Chairman of the Kirklees Crime and Community Safety portfolio Clr Nicola Turner is asking all 23 Kirklees’ area wards to stump up £183 each in a bid to keep the scheme going for another year.

Clr Turner, also chairman of the Colne Valley Area Committee, said: “The scheme is run by trading standards and the police, this money is to pay for vouchers and refreshments for the kids who do the test purchasing.

“We are working with the police very closely through the neighbourhood management groups and then we target problem areas.”

Clr Turner said underage drinking was still a problem across Kirklees but said there were no particularly bad zones in her ward, the Colne Valley.

In June a pub landlord in Kirkheaton accused the police of entrapment and using youngsters that looked over 18.

Pete Murphy who runs the Beaumont Arms on Church Lane, said he had been hit in a police sting after one of his staff was fined for serving a 15-year-old.

But Insp Glover told the Express & Chronicle: “It’s a bona fide technique, all we ask is that people ‘Check 21’.

“If they don’t look 21 ask for ID. It’s a simple rule, these people are quite vulnerable when they are drinking a lot.

“My view is not of prosecution it’s one of protection,” he added.

Clr Turner also backed the scheme: “We’ve also put some money into training off-licences to make sure they are asking the right questions,” she said.

“I would hate to think that my young person was going in and buying alcohol. If they have had the training and they are still doing it then they deserve to be punished.”

The police statistics show the Holme and Colne Valleys also performed poorly with around a fifth of test purchases resulting in children walking away with booze.

Batley, Birstall and Birkenshaw was the second worst area with a 27% failure rate.

Spenborough and the Dearne Valley (the Denby Dale area) had the lowest failures – 10% and 12% respectively.