IRRESPONSIBLE parents are risking £80 on the spot fines if they continue supplying their under-age children with alcohol. Police officers have spotted shameless parents handing carrier bags full of booze to children in Weston Woods. They say the practice

IRRESPONSIBLE parents are risking £80 on the spot fines if they continue supplying their under-age children with alcohol.Police officers have spotted shameless parents handing carrier bags full of booze to children in Weston Woods. They say the practice is common.The discovery is undermining police work to keep a lid on the type of drunken behaviour that flared up last summer.Specialist alcohol officer PC Karl Waltho said: "On the day of a school leavers' event, plain clothes officers sat outside off licences thinking it was a good time to see alcohol being sold or passed on to youngsters, not realising that mum had already gone down to the supermarket and bought it for them."I think it's prevalent in the Weston area. That's the impression I get when I speak to the kids."We saw three girls get dropped off by their parents carrying three bags of booze. We were stunned."We took one group of five children home and one parent said she knew they would get caught. I asked why let them do it in the first place."These aren't deprived families. Sometimes they are well-to-do parents who think it's okay to supply their children with booze and send them out of the door."People are quick to complain about groups of youths on the street causing disturbance and damage and we have been trying to target the problem before it happens."It's about people practising what they preach. We are being let down by adults who think it's acceptable because it's not happening in their back yard."Parents could end up getting an £80 ticket themselves. It's a very real option.