THE manageress of a Stourport off licence says she and her staff suffer a constant stream of abuse and threats from under-age yobs when they refuse to serve alcohol to them.

Penny Hunt has also hit out at claims that it is off licence staff knowingly selling drinks to youths which is fuelling the spate of under-age drinking in the town.

She said: "It is certainly not our shop. We take our responsibilities very seriously.

"We have undergone special training and have to log every instance of an under-age person trying to buy alcohol in a 'refusal to serve' book, which is also logged into the till system.

"I get very annoyed when people make accusations about staff in licensed premises knowingly serving people who are under age."

Mrs Hunt said that often on a Friday night as many as 30 people were refused alcohol by her staff - regularly resulting in abusive and threatening behaviour towards them.

"They often threaten to wait for us when we come out of work or they give us a mouthful of abuse," she explained.

"It is very unpleasant because, at the time of the evening we are open, there are not many people around."

She added that one of the main problems facing off licence staff in Stourport was people over 18 coming into the shop to buy alcohol for those who were under age - with the younger person usually waiting outside.

Mrs Hunt said: "You start to get wise to this. You realise if you have refused to serve someone and then, a few minutes later, someone older comes in and asks for exactly the same thing that something is not right."

She explained that on Saturday, May 8, a colleague was even threatened by a man who was obviously buying alcohol for his under-age son who was actually with him.

While the Shuttle/Times & News was on the telephone to Mrs Hunt last Friday, a similar incident was overheard by the reporter.

An under-age female went in to buy a bottle of the vodka-based Red Square drink - at 3.30pm.

She was refused by Mrs Hunt. Another girl came in and Mrs Hunt was clearly heard refusing to serve her as well.

Mrs Hunt said: "The second girl could have been 19 or 20 but my instinct told me she was with the first girl. This happens 20 or 30 times on a Friday night."