A teenager had a surprise when she realised she had been charged for having to show her ID while buying alcohol.

Student Sian Heather, 19, went into Bargain Booze in Seaside, Eastbourne, to purchase a bottle of wine and upon looking at the receipt she discovered the till operator had rung up a charge after he asked her for her ID.

While the charge was only one penny, Ms Heather was left confused having never been charged for being required to show for her ID before.

The student, who also works at Natwest Bank, posted a picture of her receipt on twitter saying: “Got charged £0.01 for showing my ID? #what.”

She said: “I went in just after work on Monday to buy a bottle of wine which was £2.99 – when he rung it up as £3 I did not think anything of it until I looked at the receipt.

“I have never seen anything else like this. I am not bothered it is just a penny and if I did not have to show my ID what would have happened? Would I have been charged?

“He asked for my ID and I just want to find out why they did it – it seems pretty ridiculous.”

Some users responding to Ms Heather’s tweet speculated the till may not be able to add free items to confirm the ID check. A spokeswoman for Bargain Booze said the situation was an isolated incident and it is not their company policy to charge for ID checks.

She said: “This is an isolated incident. We never charge customers for ID checks. They are registered through our till system against transactions for audit purposes. We are working closely with our Eastbourne store to ensure this doesn’t happen again and customers who have been charged a penny have been refunded.”