SALES of alcohol to underage drinkers will again be targeted by Devon County Council trading standards officers in the run up to Christmas.

The team has launched its festive campaign of test purchasing operations targeted at the illegal sale of alcohol to under-18s.

The launch coincided with Safer Devon Partnership's Christmas Alcohol Campaign, which delivers the "Think Safe Drink Safe" message.

Devon's trading standards officers have been conducting test purchasing operations for the last three years.

They use young volunteers who attempt to buy alcohol.

Test purchasing is a legally sanctioned method of testing compliance with the law in the area of age-restricted sales.

Volunteers in Devon are typically under the age of 15 and work to a strict code of practice.

The children must not 'dress-up' to enhance their age in any way, must not lie about their age if challenged, nor attempt to persuade an assistant to sell to them.

The level of illegal sales made to 13 and 14 year old volunteers is high.

In the most recent operation carried out this summer, 31% of premises sold alcohol to child volunteers.

Devon County Council's executive member for communities, Cllr Brian Berman, said: "These results show that although there has been some improvement over the last two years, it is still a significant problem, fuelling anti-social behaviour and prejudicing the safety of young people.

"We are working closely with our partner organisations and we fully support theaims of the Safer Devon Partnership's Christmas Alcohol Campaign to raise awareness of legal, sensible drinking by young people.

"We will do whatever we can to help make Devon a safer place and this means we will once again be test purchasing throughout Devon in the run up to Christmas."