COUNCIL officials who have been carrying out "sting" operations to catch pubs, clubs and shops selling alcohol to under-age children are facing increasing criti cism over the methods they are using.

It became clear yesterday that complaints from licensees that they have been the victims of "entrapment" have been accept ed by at least one court, which threw out a prosecution brought by Cornwall's trading standards department.

Cornwall's trading standards officials have been sending under-age children into pubs, clubs and shops to buy alcohol, but licensees have complained that they are not following offi cial guidelines on the "sting" operations.

Mike Cudlipp, who runs Shade's night-club in Falmouth, said a case against him ended up before Penzance magistrates when he refused to pay a fixed penalty fine for allegedly selling alcohol to a customer under the age of 18.

Mr Cudlipp's lawyers repeat edly asked for the boy used in the "sting" to appear in person so that magistrates could see for themselves how landlords and shopkeepers could easily be mis led when "a 6ft 3in youth, look ing more like an England prop forward" tries to buy alcohol.

After almost a year and sever al hearings, the case was dis missed by the magistrates, said Mr Cudlipp.

The failed attempt to prose cute Mr Cudlipp is believed to be just one of a number of cases thrown out by the courts, but attempts to verify this with Cornwall county council have proved unsuccessful. The Packet tried repeatedly over several days to speak to senior trading standards department officials, and also directed inquiries through the council's press office, but no comment was forthcoming.

The failed case against Mr Cudlipp came to light after the Press Complaints Commission dismissed a complaint against the Packet, which reproduced a CCTV image of a "sting" opera tion in progress.

The image was handed to the Packet by Mr Ian Laws, who runs Costcutter supermarkets in Falmouth and Perranporth.

Trading standards officials car ried out a "sting" operation at his Perranporth shop and Mr Laws said the young man used by the council looked at least 22 and was built like a rugby play er. He said he could fully under stand why his member of staff served the boy, because there would be no suspicion in the mind of a reasonable person that he was under 18.

A fixed penalty ticket was issued against the shop assis tant who served the youth, but she has refused to pay the fine.

The ticket was issued in November last year, but the case has not as yet been taken to court by the council.

Council officials are expected to follow national guidelines when carrying out "sting" operations. The guidelines state that "the young person must not look older than their age."

When reporting the "sting" carried out at the Perranporth shop owned by Mr Laws, the Packet reproduced a CCTV image of the youth in the process of buying alcohol so that readers could judge for themselves whether or not he looked over 18.

The county council's legal department hand-delivered a let ter to the Packet complaining that publication of the image breached the PCC code of prac tice. The council also threatened legal action for an alleged breach of the Data Protection Act and said it was liaising with the police to see if the Packet had committed a criminal offence by publishing the picture.

The Packet vigorously reject ed any suggestion that it had breached any voluntary codes of practice or criminal laws. Last week the PCC threw out the council's complaint and nothing further has been heard from the council or the police about any other issues.