A senior police officer in charge of a pilot scheme banning sales of alcohol to under 21s has given warning to politicians not to leap to conclusions after a sharp fall in alchohol-related offences.

Chief Inspector Bob Beaton, of Central Scotland police, said: “We're not trying to win friends or influence people in parliament. We're just trying to provide a service locally and tackle young offenders.”

Final figures were released yesterday for the six-month project that set out to tackle anti-social behaviour among drunken teenagers. Over the course of the scheme, a drop in reported alcohol-related offences of up to 40 per cent was achieved. Reported breaches of the peace fell by 101 to 73, complaints of vandalism decreased from 45 to 27 and assaults declined from 71 to 56.

The scheme's initial findings were criticised last month by Sheila Bird, the vice-president of the Royal Statistical Society, who called them “statistically insignificant” - a remark that was echoed yesterday at First Minister's Questions by Iain Gray, the Scottish Labour leader.

If the latest figures seem more impressive, Mr Beaton, the officer leading Stenhousemuir's Stop the Supply campaign, said that it would be unwise to leap to conclusions.

The ban on sales to under-21s came within a package of other community measures agreed with 13 local licensed traders. Bottles were coded to show the place of purchase, a ring-around scheme to alert shopkeepers to likely troublemakers was initiated and test purchasing was carried out under police supervision to ensure that the voluntary code was being followed.

A schools liaison officer has also been working at the high school for more than a year, tackling a wide range of law and order issues, while a new community football scheme has been taken up by large numbers of youngsters. A third, award-winning, project focuses on “high tariff” offenders - those teenagers who are most likely to break the law.

“All of these things together seem to be having an impact, and it would be wrong to single out one part of one scheme,” Mr Beaton said.

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