ADULTS who purchase alcohol for boozy teens could be slapped with a fine of up to £5,000 - or thrown in jail.

That is the hard-hitting message from the ‘You’re asking for it’ campaign which is clamping down on the access children have to alcohol through targeting those adults who buy it for them.

The campaign will tackle underage drinking, antisocial behaviour, crime and violence.

It will run throughout North Lanarkshire, and is driven by the Scottish alcohol industry, Police Scotland and the local authority’s Community Safety Partnership.

Chief Superintendent Roddy Irvine, Divisional Commander for Lanarkshire Division, said: “Underage drinking plays a huge part in antisocial behaviour, crime and violence in our local communities and it is important that we work together to tackle the problem and make our communities safer. Please support us in keeping our children safe and play your part in ensuring that your community is ‘not asking for it’.”

The campaign, which will run throughout the school holidays until mid-September, is responding to intelligence that under 18s are increasingly accessing alcohol by other means, such as asking an adult to buy it for them - although initiatives such as Challenge 25 have reduced the number of direct sales of alcohol to under 18s.

Throughout the campaign, police will work alongside partner agencies to impress upon adults that it is not acceptable to purchase alcohol for children. Police Scotland will also deploy officers to address the issue of proxy purchase and to actively target known hotspot locations and adults who think they are doing no harm in purchasing alcohol for children.

Council Leader Jim Logue said: “This campaign sends a very clear message to adults that buying alcohol for young people is not acceptable and anyone caught faces a fine or prison sentence.”

The campaign builds on an award-winning pilot initiative in Wishaw and Motherwell in 2015.