TEENAGERS are getting their own Christmas cards from the police with a simple seasonal message - stay off the booze!

The cards are being given out to all year-11 students at seven secondary schools in west Oxfordshire where under-age drinking is being targeted by police.

The move follows the sobering Operation Judicious in October when more than 160 cans and bottles of lager, plus spirits, wine and home-made schnapps were taken from a group of youths at Witney's Deer Park estate.

It is the only area in the Thames Valley Police (TVP) region where a direct Christmas message - "Be full of the right festive spirit this year" - is being given to 15 and 16-year-olds.

About 2,000 of the cards are being handed out through the schools.

At a launch yesterday, newly appointed schools officer PC Simon Collins said: "Underage drinking and its associated anti-social behaviour is a top concern for many residents.

"We treat the issue extremely seriously and we won't tolerate it, not just over the festive period but at any time of the year."

Police neighbourhood management updates covering the whole district regularly voice complaints about under-age drinking.

In the latest monthly ones there are more instances of seizures of drink, including one in the small village of Fulbrook, near Burford, where one teenager was issued an £80 fixed penalty notice for anti-social behaviour.

In the last two months over 300 bottles and cans have been confiscated by neighbouring policing teams, said Toby Shergold, TVP spokesman for Oxfordshire.

"We are targeting this age group because a lot of the people caught for anti-social behaviour and criminal damage are under 16," he explained.

Parents are also being given the message. They are now, as a matter of course, called out to take home their inebriated teenage sons and daughters.

And they are also persuaded to attend Parent Alcohol Awareness Workshops.

About one a month are now being held and on Wednesday evening a total of 35 parents are expected to spend an hour at the session organised by the West Oxfordshire Community Safety Partnership.