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Crime Solicitors

Croydon store fined over £2,000 for selling knives to underage customers (27 March 2017)

Date: 27/03/2017
Duncan Lewis, Crime Solicitors, Croydon store fined over £2,000 for selling knives to underage customers

A retailer who admitted selling knives to underage customers has been prosecuted by Croydon Council.

Susannah Ijaz – owner of household goods shop Best Bargain Centre, in High Street, Thornton Heath – told Croydon Magistrates’ Court that, after owning the business for more than year, she did not know what stock was in her shop.

Ijaz pleaded guilty on the company’s behalf and was ordered to pay more than £2,000 in fines and legal costs, after admitting selling knives to underage customers.

The company was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay a contribution toward prosecution costs of £1,129.50, as well as a victim surcharge of £100.

Ijaz offered to pay £50 immediately and then £100 per month thereafter, but was ordered to make monthly payments of £250.

The court heard that the shop was visited on 22 October 2016, as part of a council Trading Standards test-purchasing operation, when two underage teens selected a four-piece craft knife set, for which they paid £2.99 without being challenged by the cashier.

A short time later, the cashier and another member of staff were cautioned, but it became clear that the cashier did not fully understand the offence.

Under interview in November 2016, Ijaz said she knew little of the cashier’s background – adding that he was working a short trial period to assess his capabilities and had received only brief verbal instruction on the sale of age-restricted goods.

Ijaz conceded that, within the shop, there was no structured training programme, no system concerning the sale of age-restricted items – and no warning signs on display.

The court was also told that invitations to attend free Do You Pass? training – run by Croydon’s Trading Standards team on the sale of age-restricted goods – had not been accepted by either Ijaz or her staff.

Ijaz told the court that the knife set was in stock when the shop had been purchased in September 2015 – and that she had not been aware that it was being stocked. She had also not appreciated that the set was a restricted item as its intended use was for arts and crafts.

Cabinet Member for communities, safety and justice, Councillor Hamida Ali, said:

“This, worryingly, is another instance of a business failing to accept the offer of a training course that’s free of charge – and which is designed to prevent exactly the sort of situation in which the owner subsequently found herself.

“Traders have a legal obligation to be aware of the laws surrounding the sale of age-restricted goods – it’s for their own good and for the good of the communities they serve.”


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Duncan Lewis Criminal Solicitors can advise at any stage of a public protection offence, including charges involving selling counterfeit goods, selling illicit alcohol or tobacco products, weights and measures issues, mislabelling offences, food hygiene breaches, selling restricted items to minors, breaches of health and safety regulations – and selling or offering for sale produce which fails to meet minimum quality standards.

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