Underage children have been used as 'bait' by the council to help find stores selling alcohol or tobacco illegally.
Wigan Council's confident scrutiny meeting heard how youngsters had previously been sent into shops asking to buy booze or cigarettes. The covert surveillance is sanctioned through the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act - something the council has only used three times in the last four years.
Officer Janet Davies told the chamber in Wigan Town Hall how officers use these secretive techniques of recording and monitoring in order to investigate and prosecute fly tipping, underage sales of alcohol and tobacco and anti-social matters.
