NEARLY a quarter of shops tested by a tradings standards "drink squad" were caught selling alcohol to under-18s, an Oxfordshire County Council survey has revealed.

Test purchases were carried out at 66 shops in the county, with 15 of them failing to observe under-age drinking laws.

Police, working closely with trading standards officers, issued £80 fixed penalty fines to offenders.

Richard Webb, group manager of Oxfordshire Trading Standards, said the 22 per cent figure reflected national statistics.

He said: "Our survey was done between April 2005 and April 2006, and it is ongoing. I am disappointed at the number of shops selling alcohol to under-18s because we put a lot of work into advising and assisting businesses, and making sure that staff training is in place.

"Prosecutions are difficult, but we work closely with the police who come with us when we carry out test purchases. They issue fixed penalties to offending stores. Since April this year, seven fixed penalties have been issued."

A spokesman for the Oxfordshire ambulance service said: "People who drink to excess put themselves at risk.

"Ambulance crews attend incidents where someone who is drunk has been injured in a fight, or has harmed themselves doing something they would not do when sober.

"We have to deal with the consequences of drinking to excess and often someone who is drunk can be abusive or violent towards paramedics."

Barry Wood, leader of Cherwell District Council, said: "We support the project because we are committed to finding new ways of stopping alcohol being sold to anyone under 18."

Oxfordshire's trading standards team recently launched an "Anyone for a Drink" campaign in partnership with Cherwell District Council and Thames Valley Police, with a hotline on which members of the public could report law-breaking shops.

But only seven people called the number in two months, and the campaign has been relaunched with a new appeal for people to name rogue shops.

The hotline number is 01865 815500.