Can you guess how old they are?

A man dressed in a dark suit strolls into your shop. He's clean shaven and sports a yellow tie and ironed shirt. Looking at his face, you can tell he's fairly young - no more than 25. He might be popping in after work to pick up a bottle of wine to have with dinner, or to buy a four-pack of beer to sling in the fridge when he gets home.

Is there something about his behaviour that has caught your attention? Maybe he's overconfident, eager to make eye contact and engage in conversation? Or perhaps he's starting to blush as he walks up to the counter and is quick to hand over the money.

Any of these actions could signal that this customer is uneasy, and you might scrutinise him more closely. But with a growing queue of customers to serve, how carefully do you study his behaviour? Is a tall frame and smart suit enough to convince you that this man is over-21?

As the line-up of customers on the right shows, appearances can be misleading. You might have served the suited man pictured opposite, but questioned the baby-faced blonde guy in jeans and trainers. In fact customer C is only 16 years old, while D is 20. And when you find out that A is 19, B is 14 and E is 15, it becomes blatantly apparent how hard it is to correctly guess a person's age just by looking at them.

Seven stores duped

The difficulty with identifying teenage law-breakers was recognised in a recent landmark case which saw magistrates refuse to convict a Dorset retailer after seven stores were duped by a 16-year-old test purchase volunteer.

Graham Northeast, owner of Bonafide Wines, escaped conviction because magistrates decided the teenager he had sold a bottle of Budweiser to in a test purchase sting was made to look over 18.

The case goes some way to showing just how flawed test purchasing can be.

"Even the magistrate had to agree the photo offered by Trading Standards did not portray the girl as she looked on my CCTV," Northeast says. "After the ­photos were taken the girl added a suit jacket, scarf, big adult handbag and purse. My solicitor was not impressed and asked why photos were not taken after test purchases. No credible answer was given by Trading Standards.

"Test purchasing in my mind is the single reason why I will sell up and leave this trade. A good, soundly-run store like mine cannot survive on a knife edge situation as we all are," Northeast adds.

In April 2006 two off-licence staff caught serving a minor during a sting operation also escaped conviction - ­because CCTV footage convinced the judge that the child appeared older than she was.

The employees at two Bargain Booze outlets in Liverpool were both charged with serving alcohol to a minor when they appeared at Liverpool Magistrates Court. Doug McQueen, franchisee at the off-licences - which both have a policy of not serving alcohol to under-21s - argued in court that the girl was made to look substantially older.

Liverpool City Council insisted it was a "one-off" but would probably not employ the 15-year-old girl again.

It's unusual for courts to come down on the side of the retailer in test purchase cases, according to legal expert Peter Coulson.

"It's quite rare but it does happen. Some solicitors have been successful, and sometimes charges are withdrawn when a retailer has really dug their heels in," he says. "There are a number of ­avenues open to retailers who believe they have been wrongly targeted."

If shop staff are caught serving under-18s in a sting operation, one argument they can use in their defence is that nobody could reasonably have suspected from the person's appearance that they were under 18.

But this should never be a fall back for retailers who don't ask under-21s for proof of age, says Ivan Hancock, divisional manager of Dorset County Council Trading Standards.

"I don't think people should rely on that, the way to ensure you don't sell to under 18s is to ask for ID," he says.

"Graham Northeast didn't ask her age and he didn't ask for ID. It's alarming that a 16-year-old wasn't asked for ID."

As a retailer you don't stand a chance of knowing what people's ages are, says Cornwall Trading Standards spokeswoman Liz Rickard. Since 2005 officers have been visiting off-licences, shopping centres and schools armed with life-sized card board cut-outs of young people aged between 13 and 21, and asking people to guess their ages.

The game shows how hard it is to identify a person's age and the importance of asking for ID, Rickard says. "Nobody guesses more than three out of eight correctly. There might be a couple of difficult ones, but they're not meant to be awkward."

More retailers face prosecution

A growing number of retailers are facing prosecution because police and Trading Standards officers are using volunteers who look older than their peers, according to John Hannett, general secretary of shopworkers' union Usdaw.

"We know from experience that members can be caught out by test purchases involving volunteers who are especially chosen because they look much older than they actually are," he says.

Local authorities are well within th eir rights to use volunteers who look old for their age. While guidelines from local government co-ordinator LACORS states that the volunteer should be representative of their age group, it is up to individual officers if they adhere to these instructions.

Lack of continuity in test purchase operations across the country has left the trade calling for a single set of guidelines that all local authorities must abide by. "LACORS refuses [to do] that because they say they are not a binding authority," Coulson says.

The government is also to blame for "bucking the issue", Coulson believes. "The Home Office is being so bullish about this affair - it thinks the easiest way to stop young people buying alcohol is to put the fear of death into the licensed trade with two strikes and you're out," he says.

Under new laws proposed by the government, retailers who sell alcohol to children twice could face losing th eir licence. The tougher approach was announced by secretary of state for culture Andy Burnham as the DCMS published its Licensing Act review last month.

"There is a need to rebalance action towards enforcement and crack down on irresponsible behaviour," Burnham says. "Other measures will include tougher sanctions on licensees who breach their licence conditions and more focus on identifying problem hot spots."

Tougher stance

And this tough stance against retailers could soon get even tougher with a senior Trading Standards officer advocating the widespread use of test purchase volunteers who look older than their age.

Brandon Cook, the Trading Standards Institute's lead officer on test purchasing issues, says: "From my own point of view, you ought to be able to use 17-year-olds who look 21. If they're under age they're under age . It's supposed to be a test of true life," he says.

The question whether test purchase stings should be set up to mim ic real life divided the trade in June 2006 when the Association of Chief Police Officers criticised LACORS' revised guidance on sting operations for being too soft.

Minutes from a meeting of the Retail Standards Group, Home Office and Trading Standards were leaked to OLN , reveal ing that the association supported children carrying fake ID and dressing to look older than they are.

ACPO also withdrew its support for LACORS' guidelines, saying it believed children should be able to lie as a ­general rule rather than in "exceptional circumstances".

In the real world, where teenagers will lie about their age, dress maturely and download ID cards from the internet in their bid to buy alcohol, retailers must be constantly vigilant in identifying under-age customers.

We all might struggle to guess people's ages, but should be clear that asking for ID is the only foolproof solution.

Clues that a customer could be under-age

Study their faces - facial hair, acne, Adam's apples, blushing and traces of puppy fat could all be signs that they're too young to be served

Listen to the tone of their voice

Look closely at the clothes they are wearing

Scutinise their body language - some children won't look shop staff in the eye while others may be overconfident

There's no substitute for checking ID, so always ask to see proof of age.

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