A SHOPKEEPER faces being banned from selling alcohol after council officials said they caught him selling booze to under-age drinkers three times.

Investigators have caught Adil Farook, who runs a convenience store in Ouseburn Road, Livesey, Blackburn, on three occasions in four months, a report to councillors said.

Each time he was confron-ted by police or trading standards officers Mr Farook, who has run the Faisal Adil convenience store for the past seven years, became aggressive and abusive, the report said.

But Mr Farook said he had been "set up" by the authorities and intended to fight a Blackburn with Darwen council bid to strip him of his alcohol licence.

Council officials are also considering whether to prosecute him for breaching his licence, saying they had seized Pernod, strong cider and lager from teenagers served at the store, where Mr Farook is the designated supervisor.

The report also said consumer watchdogs have received 12 complaints from the public about alcohol and cigarettes being sold to under-age youngsters at Mr Farook's shop.

In March the first of three covert operations was mounted to see if Mr Farook would sell to known customers or fall victim to a sting' operation invol-ving a teenager recruited by trading standards.

Allegedly two young girls were seen to have entered the shop - then an Asian woman came out and looked up and down the street.

Shortly afterwards the girls left the premises and were stopped by police and trading standards nearby - the 13-year-olds each had a bottle of Pernod under-neath their jackets which they said had been sold to them at Mr Farook's store, the report said.

Then in May a test' purchase was conduced involving a 14-year-old trading standards volun-teer. He was able to buy four cans of Carlsberg lager from the shop, the report was told.

And in June during another operation, two young boys were seen arriving at Mr Farook's store, with one wearing a rucksack.

This time an Asian boy emerged moments later, looking up and down the street.

After the boys, aged 13 and 14, had left the shop , the report said they were detained by police and two bottles of cider and a pack of Richmond cigarettes were retrieved from the rucksack. Police and trading standards quest-ioned Mr Farook after each of the three incidents and he was said to have been "aggressive and abusive" each time.

But Mr Farook, 47, said: "I have been here for seven years and there has never been any problems - I am going to do whatever is in my power to fight this."

He is adamant that on the first and third occasions reported by police and trading standards that alcohol was not sold to youngsters.

In the second incident, involving a test purchase, he said the teenager in question was "six foot tall" and repeatedly lied when challenged about his true age.

Mr Farook, who is consulting a solicitor about the licensing review, also said he had evidence from local parents of trading standards officers trying to recruit youngsters to become involved in sting' operations on his premises. The application to withdraw Mr Farook's licence has been made by Paul Heward, the borough council's senior trading standards officer.

Councillors reviewing the matter can choose to take no action, modify the licence, remove Mr Farook as the designated premises supervisor, suspend the licence for up to three months or revoke the licence completely.

Trading standards officials are lobbying for the licence to be revoked indefinitely.

The application will be considered at a future meeting of the borough's licensing committee.