A NEWSAGENT has been fined following the sale of alcohol to a child.

A Trading Standards operation, using an underage volunteer, on September 21 last year resulted in Joseph Vincent, the licensee of a convenience store in Chatham Road, Hartlepool, being prosecuted.

Mr Vincent pleaded not guilty to selling alcohol to a person under 18.

A court heard that Mr Vincent was stood next to the shop assistant who sold a bottle of WKD to the child, but he did not intervene.

Mr Vincent denied the charge, claiming that his training provisions and safeguards showed that he had taken reasonable precautions and exercised due diligence to prevent the sale.

However, Hartlepool Magistrates' Court disagreed and Mr Vincent was found guilty of the offence and ordered to pay a £500 fine and £825 costs.

Hartlepool Council Trading Standards Officer Neil Harrison has urged stores to be more diligent.

He said: "We are striving to help reduce anti-social behaviour which blights areas of Hartlepool, but some stores are repeatedly failing to play their part.

"Alcohol fuels anti-social behaviour, so we must make sure that children can't obtain alcohol. We won't hesitate to prosecute people who sell alcohol to children."