A pub has been closed down and its alcohol confiscated in a police raid.

Officers asked customers to leave the Schooner Inn in High Street, Shoreham, before removing all the beer barrels and spirits.

They said the bar was opening outside permitted hours without a licence and they had a warrant under the Licensing Act issued because a previous licence extension had been repealed.

Manager Mo Finn, who said she will claim damages from Sussex Police, had been warned not to open up the day before. Her private quarters were also searched.

Police said she was given repeated warnings about her management of the pub and they would make no apology for strictly enforcing licensing laws.

Miss Finn had her 12-hour opening licence revoked after exceeding the hours and then opened earlier than she was allowed to, they said.

Sergeant Steve Barry, of the Sussex Police community safety unit, said: "She has had previous warnings regarding her behaviour. It all culminated in us repealing her licence extension.

"As a result of that repeal, she had her name transferred from the licence to the freeholders.

"She rang us on the Friday to ask if it was all right to open on the Saturday after we repealed the license extension.

"We said it was not all right but she went ahead and opened anyway, so we had to go in with a warrant under the Licensing Act."

Miss Finn is claiming damages from the force, accusing officers of wrongfully obtaining a warrant to confiscate her alcohol.

She said there was a mix-up over her hours and she believed she had only been refused permission for a later extension.

Miss Finn said she was the victim of a vendetta by officers who were over zealous in their policing following "one silly mistake".

She transferred her name from the pub's licence to that of the pub's freeholders the day before the raid which was on Saturday, April 7.

She said: "I have held licences on and off for 30 years and never had a black mark against me.

"I took over this pub 18 months ago and I have spent £60,000 sprucing the place up. I have been harassed for months for no good reason.

"Then on Saturday, nine officers come in here. They took out all the barrels and spirits and went through my private property."

Solicitors Bennett Griffin and Partners, of Sea Lane, Ferring, Worthing, which is acting on Miss Finn's behalf, said a warrant was obtained by police "on the grounds that alcohol was being sold, exposed or kept for sale at a place for which there was no licence for it to be lawfully sold".

A spokeswoman said: "Relying on that warrant we understand that nine police officers attended the Schooner at 6.15pm on Saturday where they seized all the alcohol on the premises including that in our client's living quarters.

"These premises have had a Justices On Licence for some considerable time and the police are fully aware of this.

"Therefore, we do not understand how a warrant could have been issued in the first place and then relied upon by the police to seize goods.

"As a result, we have made a formal complaint against the licensing officer who obtained the warrant and have asked for the return of our client's goods who will be making a claim for any damages resulting from the seizure of these goods.

"We are aware of the unflattering comments the police have made about our client in the past but even if those were true that does not give the police authority to seize our client's goods in what appears to be a contravention of licensing laws."

The Sussex Society of Licensed Victuallers and Friendly Society said it had received three complaints about "over enthusiastic" policing of some licensed premises.