Binge drinkers and booze-fuelled brawlers who plague Kingston town centre at night face on-the-spot fines in a police crackdown on loutish behaviour.

A £40 fine for public drunkenness, and an £80 fine for drink-related disorder, will be introduced this Friday.

Offenders will be taken to the police station where they will be issued with the fixed penalty notice similar to a parking ticket.

They will have 21 days to pay the fine, or appeal, before they can be arrested and brought before a magistrate.

Uniformed and plain-clothes police officers will also be monitoring the town's pubs to make sure they do not serve people who are already drunk.

The initiative is timed to coincide with the start of summer and the Euro 2004 football tournament.

A 20 per cent rise in violent crime in Kingston last year was blamed on the thousands who gather in the town centre's pubs and clubs at weekends.

The tickets can be issued anywhere in the borough but will be used mainly to tackle town centre disorder.

Chief Inspector Tim Pointer said: "We've had enough of people coming to Kingston, getting drunk and behaving in a disorderly manner. If we come across anybody fighting, shouting or misbehaving in any way they are liable to a fixed penalty notice."

Being drunk on a public highway is a criminal offence but Chief Insp Pointer said officers would be targeting people who were a nuisance to others with the £40 fine. The £80 fine will be reserved for people who get into drunken brawls.

He said in the past, officers would just tell drunken louts to calm down or break up fights and advise people to go home. But he said the new approach would have more impact on those people who came to Kingston and thought they could act with impunity.

The scheme was piloted in Croydon in 2002 and was hailed a success by police last year after 230 people were issued with fines. They have been available to other forces since late last year.

The fines received a cautious welcome from Malcolm Grosvenor, spokesman for the Enough is Enough campaign, which aims to limit nightlife in the town centre.

He said: "Any measure which helps to deter people from anti-social behaviour in Kingston is a good thing. What would make us more reassured is a greater police presence on the street late at night.

"What we really ought to be looking to do is to change young people's drinking culture."

sbrody@london.newsquest.co.uk