Hundreds of cans and bottles seized by 'green' police

Over the last month, alcoholic drinks including 382 cans of lager, 136 bottles of lager, 28 litres of cider, 11 litres of wine, five bottles vodka and a bottle of tequila was seized from underage drinkers in Littlehampton, Angmering, East Preston and Rustington under Operation Respect.

This initiative is ongoing throughout the summer period and focuses on underage drinkers and anti-social behaviour which is fuelled by alcohol.

The green-minded officers even collected the open cans and bottles that were taken away and kept them for recycling. These can be seen in the red box on the left of the photograph.

The contents, however, were poured away. Police said that auctioning the drinks for charity or finding a good home for them elsewhere was not an option as the exact contents of the bottles was hard to verify and may be contaminated.

PC Dave Banham-Brown said: "Long gone the days where a couple of cans shared in a secluded area was a good night out, the amount of alcohol seized shows that these youths are intent of getting drunk.

"Also of concern is the type of alcohol being consumed, a lot of this alcohol is very strong in volume and the bottle of tequila can have some very serious effects if consumed in large quantities.

"The amount seized is only a proportion of the alcohol that is out there, as more often than not the youths have already consumed the drink, or hidden it nearby."