An off-licence has been banned from selling alcohol after plying youngsters with booze.

Joe's Corkscrew in Green Street, Eastbourne, had its licence revoked after it was caught four times selling alcohol to teenagers.

It is the first business in the town and the second in Sussex to lose its liquor licence permanently.

Bob Lacey, chairman of Eastbourne Borough Council's licensing committee, said the ban showed shopkeepers that under-age drinking would not be tolerated.

He said: "Teenagers drinking on the streets is a big problem and causes misbehaviour.

"I appreciate this was a severe penalty but it is the direction of travel we intend to go.

"It means any landlord and off-licence owner is going to have to be particularly careful in the future."

Four members of staff, including owner Bruce Smith, were fined £80 between April and December 2006 for breaking the law.

They were caught three times in test purchases by police and trading standards officials.

On another occasion officers found youngsters drinking from cans they had bought from the store.

Mr Smith said said he was being made into a "scapegoat"

for the area's youth drinking culture.

He told The Argus: "It will affect my business badly because alcohol accounts for about 40 per cent of my sales, not including everything that goes with it, like cigarettes. We have been made into a scapegoat and the police have used us to hide their own inadequacy.

"I have called the police in the past to ask them to move the youths outside the shop and they never responded."

But Eastbourne police insist a permanent ban was necessary and warned more could follow.

Inspector Nick Porter, who monitors the town's licensing and night-time economy, said: "It isn't just Mr Smith that has been targeted and there are other people in the pipeline who will be reviewed if they sell again.

"The premises of Joe's Corkscrew proved to be a real cause for concern to some local residents because poor management led to youths being sold alcohol, gathering outside the shop and then acting in an intoxicated and intimidating manner."

Nigel Waterson, MP for Eastbourne, gave his full backing to the crackdown on under-age drinking.

He said: "This particular off-licence had been warned far too often for sales to under-age people.

"I hope its licence being removed will serve as a warning to other alcohol outlets throughout my constituency."

Rydes of Worthing, in Rowlands Road, was the first in Sussex to have its alcohol licence permanently revoked last week.

In the past two months Tesco Express, in Broadwater Street, Worthing, Somerfields in London Road, Brighton, and Bargain Booze, in Longridge Avenue, Saltdean, had their licences temporarily revoked.