Head teachers have backed a campaign against joke cigarettes by two mothers who were horrified to discover their children could buy packets of fakes in the shops.

Michelle Coles, 30, of Flint Close, Portslade, could not believe her ears when her cheeky son, Charlie Lott, aged six, came home from the shops with his friend Jamie Janes, 11, and told her he was just going outside to smoke a cigarette.

She said she was shocked by the youngster's joke, especially when he held up the packet, plus a fake lighter filled with water, and she saw how realistic the toys looked.

Her neighbour, Jamie's mother Jacqui Scarratt, 40, said she was just as disgusted. Now the two of them are waging a campaign to ban shopkeepers from selling them to children under 16.

They fear the toys, which glow as if lit at the end and blow out a puff of powder to mimic smoke, could encourage children to take up the real habit.

They are warning parents to watch out for similar packets in other shops and are urging shopkeepers not to sell them to children.

They have already won one victory after the shop where Charlie bought the offending packet, Happy Shopper in Mill Lane, Brighton, promised never again to sell the fake cigarettes.

Happy Shopper's manager Kenny Patel said: "I won't buy any more, even though I'm not breaking any law, but if it doesn't make my customers happy, I will stop selling them.

"It's the first experience I have had of selling them, it was a one-off. I have not had any other complaints.

"It's really down to the manufacturers, maybe they should mark the packets 'not for under 16'. If it had said that, I wouldn't have sold them.

Miss Coles said: "I am glad he has stopped selling them. Now I'm going to write to the manufacturers.

"I'm horrified. It's encouraging children to smoke, they look so real.

"Although I know it's fake, what sort of mother would I look like if anyone saw my six-year-old puffing on one of these?"

Mrs Scarratt said: "It's illegal to sell cigarettes to children under 16, so why should you be able to sell them joke ones?

"Children don't need any more encouragement, there is enough pressure on them to start smoking as it is, without teaching them how to handle cigarettes as a so-called joke."

Charlie's head teacher Barbara Eagles, of Knoll Infants School, Stapley Road, Hove, which has a strict no smoking policy and an on-going health education programme, said she supported the parents' campaign 100 per cent.

"I would have thought they are not suitable for children full stop. I can't see any reason for going around with a fake cigarette in your hands, there are much nicer toys for children.

"Parents have got to be very watchful over what their children buy in the shops."

Jamie's head teacher Tony Childs, of Hove Park Lower School, Hangleton Way, Hove, said: "We have a very stringent anti-smoking campaign. We would support anything that discourages children from smoking.

"What we are most likely to do is include this in our anti-smoking campaign and say 'you don't want to get caught with anything that looks like a cigarette in school'."

Alison Cooke, spokeswoman for manufacturers Smiffy's, said: "We are fully regulated and we come up to British Standards. They are just a toy and they are perfectly harmless. You could say they encourage children to smoke but if somebody buys a candle shaped like a beer bottle would it encourage them to drink?"